THE PIPELINE TO “ONE HEALTH”: PRODUCING SCIENCE BASED PROFESSIONALS FOR THE HEALTH OF HUMANS, ANIMALS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Maintaining a sense of inquiry and discover among the next generation of K-12 and beyond learners demands an alluring and challenging agenda. Relationships between the STEM disciplines, including, geology and medicine, provide a natural junctures and teachable moments for educating science based professionals. Current educational institutions like the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine structure curricula to “produce globally-minded, community –focused, physicians to meet the needs of rural and medically underserved populations and promote research to improve human health”. Likewise, the “One Health Initiative” is a worldwide strategy for expanding interdisciplinary collaborations and communications in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment”. Their ‘one world – one medicine – one health’ concept addresses the connections between health and the environment. There are several strategies that can be taken to strengthen the pipeline that keeps the “K-12 and beyond” teacher-learner dyad connected and engaged. 1) Improve salaries for the lowest grade level teachers who have the greatest impacts on life-long learning. Currently, our culture places a disproportionate emphasis at the end of the educational process. Those in higher education often reap the greatest rewards (highest salaries) when the greatest and most long lasting impacts are instilled at the earliest ages, pre-K and below. 2) Integrate disciplines under the umbrella with applications and hands-on experiences. Medicine, nutrition and geological sciences are excellent venues for teaching “one health concepts”. Following the flow of energy through human, animal and environment interactions is a prime example. 3) Implement critical thinking and self-directed activities with student driven problem solving in K-12 and beyond environments. Graduate and medical education should perpetuate the theme and continue to foster “accelerated biomedical research discoveries, enhanced public health efficacy, expanded scientific knowledge base, and improved medical education and clinical care” through collaborative partnerships with human, animal and environmental stakeholders.