Advancing One Health Policy and Implementation through the Concept of One Medicine One Science

Abstract

Numerous interspecies disease transmission events, Ebola virus being a recent and cogent example, highlight the complex interactions between human, animal, and environmental health and the importance of addressing medicine and health in a comprehensive scientific manner. The diversity of information gained from the natural, social, behavioral, and systems sciences is critical to developing and sustainably promoting integrated health approaches that can be implemented at the local, national, and international levels to meet grand challenges. The Concept of One Medicine One Science (COMOS) as outlined herein describes the interplay between scientific knowledge that underpins health and medicine and efforts toward stabilizing local systems using 2 linked case studies: the food system and emerging infectious disease. Forums such as the International Conference of One Medicine One Science (iCO-MOS), where science and policy can be debated together, missing pieces identified, and science-based collaborations formed among industry, governmental, and non-governmental policy makers and funders, is an essential step in addressing global health. The expertise of multiple disciplines and research foci to support policy development is critical to the implementation of one health and the successful achievement of global health security goals.