CloseHelpPrint
Kies de Nederlandse taal
Course module: BMW33214
BMW33214
One Health
Course info
Course codeBMW33214
EC7.5
Content
ONE HEALTH - Honours course
Credits:            7.5                                                                             Course code: BMW33214
Coordinator:    Dr. F. Coenjaerts                                                    Period: 4
Examinator:     Dr. F. Coenjaerts                                                    Time slot: A+D
E-mail:              f.e.j.coenjaerts@umcutrecht.nl                          Level: 3
Phone:              088-7551318                                   
 
 “One Health”, is the collaborative effort of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment. It is about seeing the consequences of well-intentioned interventions in one element of the continuum on the other elements and understanding the cause behind the cause of a problem. When properly implemented, it will help protect and save lives in our present and future generations.
 
Target students:
The course “One Health” has been developed to appeal to multidisciplinary Honours students from: veterinary, (bio-) medical, and pharmaceutical sciences. In addition, students from management sciences, law or economics are encouraged to participate if they have particular interest in this topic. The course:
  • makes students aware of the fact that many public health issues have multifactorial origins (e.g. today’s intensive animal husbandry, novel agricultural strategies);
  • challenges students to approach One Health issues from different disciplines and to incorporate knowledge from outside their own discipline;
  • will focus on (infectious) diseases, or aspects thereof, that require a multidisciplinary approach, like zoonoses, or antibiotic resistance;
  • will be taught in English.
 
Format:
Students are actively involved in creating an interesting and challenging course. Subgroups of six students from different backgrounds choose their own theme for the whole course. Exemplary themes include One Health issues like Q-fever, MRSA, brucellosis, toxoplasmosis, avian influenza or MERS. Students are encouraged to contact experts on subjects not yet or incompletely covered in the course, but required for their chosen topic or for all students in the course. Students will be stimulated to organize excursions to topic-linked destinations.
In the first weeks of the course, supportive and informative plenary lectures will be scheduled, presented by experts in every relevant discipline (clinical-, veterinary-, biomedical-, pharmacological-aspects, burden of disease, zoonotic outbreak management, considerations from the past). In addition, they will attend workshops to train their interdisciplinary research skills. Throughout the course, student groups will work on their own project, guided by a mentor, who will discuss problems and make plans on a weekly basis.
 
Deliverables:
Throughout the course, subgroups work on each theme to produce three deliverables:
  1. an oral presentation (halfway the course) to show progress thus far, as well as to obtain feedback from experts and colleague students;
  2. a scientifically solid final report, in which each student, irrespective discipline, is responsible for the complete report;
  3. a final presentation (in any challenging format) in which the main outcomes of the particular study are presented in a way attractive not only for experts and fellow students, but also for layman. The various disciplines must be well-represented in the final report as well as in the presentations.
 
Required knowledge at enrollment:
The course is open for Honours students of Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Veterinary Sciences, Pharmacy, Law, Economics, Management Sciences, and other relevant Honours programs. Non-Honours students can participate depending on availability. All students must apply by sending a motivation letter and a CV to the coordinator. Decisions on eligibility are made available before subscription terms to period 4 courses are closed.
 
Enrollment:
The number of students that can be allowed will be 24-30, preferably in multiples of six.
 
Aims of the course:
Knowledge
At the end of the course the student is able:
  • to understand how different disciplines contribute to the description and understanding of complex health issues occurring on the intersections of medical, veterinary and environmental health and caused by, or related to, infectious agents;
  • to collaborate with students of other disciplines to analyze and describe the contribution of each of the relevant disciplines in the approach of a health problem relevant to human and veterinary medicine.
 
Skills
At the end of the course the student is able:
  • to describe an integrated view of a health problem, relevant for human, veterinary, and environmental medicine (“One Health”) with a multidisciplinary approach: (bio)medical, pharmaceutical, veterinary, juridical and economical;
  • to explain to different target groups (patients, colleagues, financial experts, managers) the contribution of a discipline and to relate this to the contribution of other disciplines;
  • to explain the major conclusions to an audience of non-experts.
 
Forms of teaching, contact time:
Lectures (20 h), group meetings (15 h), presentations (8 h). Contact time will be about 6-8 hrs in the first 3 weeks and 2 – 5 hrs thereafter.
 
Assessments:
  • Active participation;
  • Presentations to peer groups and experts;
  • Final report.
 
Required materials (books/costs):
None.
 
CloseHelpPrint
Kies de Nederlandse taal