Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
2025 AAHA One Health Guidelines: Navigating Cross-Disciplinary Partnerships.
- Journal:
- Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association
- Year:
- 2025
- Authors:
- McNeil, Carrie et al.
- Affiliation:
- EcoVet Global · United States
Plain-English summary
Veterinary medicine focuses on the health of animals, while human medicine is all about people, but there are many ways these two areas connect, along with the environment. To improve how these fields work together, a group of experts from both human and veterinary medicine has created new guidelines. These guidelines aim to help professionals communicate better and collaborate on cases that affect both animal and human health, such as diseases that can spread between species or situations involving family dynamics. They provide definitions to help everyone understand each other, advice on when to involve other professionals, and examples of real-life situations where this teamwork is beneficial. Overall, these guidelines are designed to enhance the care that families receive for both their pets and themselves.
Abstract
Veterinary medicine is centered on the animal patient, and similarly, human medicine is centered on the human patient. Yet animal health, human health, and the environment intersect in myriad ways. Despite this intersection, there are few resources that take a family-centered, collaborative approach to human, animal, and environmental health. To help address this gap, AAHA has brought together a task force of human and veterinary medical professionals with the goal of improving collaboration between professions to facilitate better outcomes for families with pets. These guidelines address common scenarios (e.g., zoonotic disease, disability, intimate partner violence) that intersect with human and animal health and provide strategies for greater communication and collaboration between the professions. The guidelines cover (1) terms and definitions to establish a common language between professions; (2) how to determine if a case requires a One Health approach; (3) how and when to reach out to other professionals for a case (e.g., social worker, physician, other medical professionals); and (4) how and when to follow up and close cases. These guidelines also offer case studies illustrating One Health scenarios that connect with human/family health, with supplemental materials available on the AAHA website at aaha.org/one-health.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40874929/