Why Some Havard Medical Students Are Starting Veterinary Rotations

“During medical school, students learn everything about the human body – but in Boston, a select group of Harvard medical students are learning about animals, too. It’s part of a collaborative program between Harvard Medical School and the Franklin Park Zoo called One Health, and it allows medical students to do a veterinary rotation during their final year of school.” Dana Jacobson reports from the CBS news

I capture a few statements from the interview as below:

• Healthy people and animals depend on a healthy ecosystem, and a healthy ecosystem is richness of species/biodiversity. Healthy ecosystems also leads to healthy people
• One of the student pediatrician stated, “I had no big expectations other than to just explore my curiosity and also have a chance to speak to veterinary doctors and learn from them. What was amazing was that from the very first day we could talk about very complex cases with the same language. I find myself thinking outside the box more often than I would have. My biggest impact was in my relationship to patients, especially as a pediatrician, and how I approach my patient. This gentle approach of gradually gaining trust with patients is something I gained from the veterinarians and animals I worked with.

• Why are you better served by knowing more than just the human body? It is important to view the patient-doctor relationship within a larger framework. In medical school we learn how people living conditions, their income and occupations all impact their health. One Health is sort of an additional dimension to that. I think the more you can maintain that large framework in your approach to patient care, I think that serves everyone better.

• Is One Health creating better doctors? Potentially yes, I think this will inform and will influence what they think about global health. When they are working in their own community and around the globe they will think differently about the health of their patients in the context of the health of the environment and animals.

View the full interview here: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/why-some-harvard-medical-students-are-starting-veterinary-rotations/