BEVA Congress to consider ‘One Medicine’
'One Medicine' is an adaptation of the widely recognised concept of One Health.
This year’s British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) Congress is to consider the concept of One Medicine between equine and human care.
One Medicine is an adaptation of the widely recognised concept of One Health, which suggests a unified approach in the health of humans, animals and the ecosystem.
The concept of One Health suggests that, through the collaboration of professionals across different sectors and disciplines, shared knowledge can tackle major issues affecting humans, domesticated animals and wildlife. This includes infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance and food safety.
This has now been adapted to become ‘One Medicine’ to acknowledge other non-infectious diseases which share similarities across both animals and humans.
Although not all diseases are the same in both horses and humans, there are some treatments produced for either species that can be useful for both.
BEVA president Roger Smith said: “There is much to learn from similar diseases in the two species.
“Treatments developed in either species can be appropriate for both, and the horse can be an ideal ‘proving ground’ for new treatments destined for human medicine.”
Mr Smith has highlighted the Peter Rossdale Clinical Evidence Lecture as one of particular relevance to One Medicine. He says that Dr Rossdale was a keen advocate of medical-veterinary collaborations and evidence-based medicine.
The speaker of this year’s lecture is Andrew Carr, a professor from the University of Oxford and a former director of the Botnar and Kennedy Research Institutes.
Prof Carr is a shoulder surgeon and has developed the basic science around tendon disease. He has also performed controlled studies of surgical techniques for the human shoulder.
Not every talk at the congress will address One Medicine, however speakers have been asked to include examples if possible.
There will be a combined session on the Saturday morning which will explore tendon and ligament disease. Ian Wright, Andy Fiske-Jackson and Andre Buthe will lead on the veterinary side, while orthopaedic surgeon Andrew Goldberg will present the human side.
Mr Goldberg often treats Achilles tendinopathy, which is the human equivalent of superficial digital flexor tendinopathy in horses.
There will also be a talk from author and orthopaedic surgeon Bill Ribbans. Prof Ribbans will explain his view on detecting stress fractures in human athletes and evaluate the case for the social license of equine competition.
Mr Smith said: “We hope that the theme of ‘One Medicine’ will not only be interesting to delegates but also potentially provide some ideas for new diagnostic and/or management strategies for the cases we see as clinicians.”
BEVA Congress will take place from 11-14 September 2024 at the ACC in Liverpool. The full BEVA programme can be found here.
Image © BEVA
Joanne Webster, a professor of parasitic diseases at the RVC, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).
