At SEAOHUN 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand, ICAP highlighted work supporting One Health education as part of USAID’s One Health Workforce – Next Generation project (OHW-NG).

The OHW-NG project is a global consortium of organizations working to support the Africa One Health University Network (AFROHUN) and the Southeast Asia One Health University Network (SEAOHUN) to become global leaders in delivering state-of-the-art, scalable, and sustainable workforce development that can address critical One Health workforce gaps.

One Health is an approach that encourages the collaborative efforts of experts working across human, animal, and environmental health to combat emerging diseases and health threats.

From September 5 – 7, 2022, ICAP joined more than 300 participants, including current and aspiring One Health practitioners, educators, researchers, and international stakeholders, to present and exchange knowledge on addressing complex One Health challenges in various plenary and parallel meetings centered around the conference theme:
Catalyzing One Health Citizens of the Future.”

At a parallel session on One Health Education, Getachew Kassa, MSc, MPH, DrBA, senior technical advisor, ICAP Clinical and Training Unit, presented on the topic Building the One Health Workforce through Competency-based Education to Prevent and Respond to Outbreaks and Related Emergencies. Highlighting the importance of incorporating competency-based education (CBE) into training the next generation of One Health practitioners, he also shared insights and presented the results of training sessions ICAP developed for members of the AFROHUN and SEAOHUN networks.

“One of the challenges with One Health education is that many educators lack an integrated competency-based education framework and curriculum that focuses on ensuring trainees master a subject matter thoroughly through various training stages that teach them practical and real-life solutions to emerging public health threats,” said Kassa. “Competency-based education focuses on not only what people need to know, but also on what to do in a real situation or how to implement global health security programs at scale.”

ICAP also had the opportunity to showcase work done to develop an online academy for global One Health education and certification of One Health in-service and pre-service trainees. The One Health Workforce Academies website is a collaboration with other One Health global consortium partners, including the University of California Davis, Irvine, and Berkeley, the EcoHealth Alliance, and other organizations. The website currently offers sample training courses and case studies and will eventually provide a certification examination for One Health trainees.

Ava Sullivan, EcoHealth Alliance, describing the online academy to conference participants

“ICAP’s work in the OHW-NG project involves actively developing parameters to assess health care worker capability to apply a One Health approach to public health and disease control in preparation for future pandemics. The online academy is a key tool in establishing formalized One Health certification across all university networks to standardize the global approach to fighting emerging One Health disease threats,” said Fatima Tsiouris, MS, deputy director for Human Resources for Health Development.

Currently, the website is available for users to browse and pilot courses under development and provide feedback on the development of the online academy.

“ICAP has been actively working with members from SEAOHUN and AFROHUN to develop sustainable training programs to equip the health workforce with transdisciplinary skills to manage biological risks and strengthen global health security,” Susan Michaels-Strasser, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, senior director, Human Resources for Health Development. “This conference has been significant in highlighting the multifaceted and complex approaches stakeholders in One Health use to address public health challenges. By showcasing the website in development, we hope to get more buy-in from the university networks to establish this online academy.”

Susan Michaels-Strasser, ICAP Senior Director, Human Resources for Health Development (Right)
Fatima Tsiouris, Deputy Director for Human Resources for Health Development (Left) at the SEAOHUN conference.