Summary
Multi-sectorial, socio-economic, collaborative systems-based (MSC) research has become increasingly popular in the past decade. We examined policy documents for organizations advocating for and using MSC methods, including Ecohealth and One Health, to find how they described their approach. Word clouds were used to illustrate the most common themes and their relative importance. Findings were verified with experts in the field.
Introduction
There are a number of research approaches, including Ecohealth and One Health, that address complicated problems at the interface of human, animal and environmental health by using systems-based, collaborative methods to integrate information from multiple sectors, species and/or disciplines to improve health, identify health risks and develop options for risk reduction.
We developed the phrase ‘multisectoral, systems-based collaborative (MSC), research’ as a catch-all for these various research approaches.
MSC approaches came to prominence in the early 2000’s to deal with ‘increasingly complicated problems of health and ecosystems, and the struggle to make a difference in local communities’ (EcoHealth Research in Practice, 2012).
Asia is a ‘global hotspot’ for disease emergence (Coker, Hunter et al., 2011) and has been a testing ground for many MSC research approaches.
Our first goal was to characterize MSC research in Asia and uncover commonalities and differences in MSC approaches used by organizations advocating for and practicing MSC research.
Our second goals was to determine which approaches are most likely to create outcomes necessary to reduce emerging infectious diseases (EID) risk and improve health of people in Asia.
Methods
References
Coker, R.J., Hunter,B.M., Rudge, J.W., Liverani , M., Hanvoravongchai, P. (2011). Emerging infectious diseases in southeast Asia: regional challenges to control. Lancet 377:599-609; DOI: 10.1016/S0140- 6736(10)620041.
Ecohealth research in practice: Innovative applications of an ecosystem approach to health (2012), In: D Charron (Ed.), International Development Research Center, Ottawa. pp. 273.
Results
Key words and phrases associated with One Health
One Health placed greatest emphasis on collaboration between health professionals, focused on improving multi-disciplinary communication and collaboration. One Health addressed key public health outcomes such as integrated disease prevention and surveillance, and safety of food systems. One Health focused on threat detection, response and prevention using public health tools.
Key words and phrases associated with Ecohealth
Ecohealth focused on cooperation amongst a broad range of stakeholders, including amongst practitioners and with affected communities and emphasized participatory and transdisciplinary approaches. Ecohealth focused on social dimensions of health problems, social determinants of resilience or vulnerability, and threats from environmental change. There was a specific attention paid to equity, gender, systems approaches, and sustainability.
EID priorities in Country Cooperation Strategies for Asian Countries
Key priorities for EID’s in Asia seemed more in line with One Health. It is unclear if that is a reflection of the desire to address priorities of funders or stems from local needs. Expert comment: “We, of course have to be careful because the relationship between policy aspirations and actual action is often tenuous and sometimes not reflected at all in reality. In fact policy papers are used more for deflection of criticism than reflection on reality. The closer the work is to the global scale the more this is true.”
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the Ecohealth Emerging Infectious Diseases Initiative (EcoEID) for the funding of this project. EcoEID “is a CA$8.9 million global effort funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre; Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (through the Global Health Research Initiative); and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.”
Poster Design and Layout: Dr. Tyler Stitt, Centre for Coastal Health and Jessie Wilkins, Veterinary Medicine Program University of Calgary
Online materials from organizations involved in MSC research were searched for descriptions of research approaches.
Keywords and phrases from descriptions were counted and converted into word clouds using wordle.net, with increased counts represented with a larger size of word.
For each term, definitions were created using a review of relevant published materials and expert review.
We reviewed priorities around EIDs in Asian countries using online searches of policy documents and compared these to word clouds.
Results were shared with 7 experts involved in MSC research to verify findings and to summarize generalized impressions.
Matching Ecohealth and One Health Attributes for Emerging Infectious Diseases in Asia
Theresa Burns1, David Stephen1, Manish Kakkar2, Purvi Mhetta-Bhatt3, Hung Nguyen-Viet4, Durgatt Joshi5, Jennifer Dawson1, Craig Stephen6
1Center for Coastal Health, 2Public Health Foundation of India, 3International Livestock Research Institute,
4Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research, Hanoi School of Public Health, 5National Zoonoses and Food Hygiene Research Centre,
6Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative