Integrated Outbreak Analytics and One Health: A Collaborative Framework for Comprehensive Health Responses
Rachel Goodermote (IFRC)
Both Integrated Outbreak Analytics (IOA) and One Health are centered on the need for transdisciplinary, multi-sectoral collaboration. As the global landscape of disease outbreaks becomes more complex and interconnected, the importance of integrating diverse perspectives and datasets cannot be overstated. IOA represents a multi-disciplinary approach to outbreaks and public health emergency response, aiming to gather and utilize a wide range of information to address specific challenges. In this way, IOA draws from epidemiology, sociology, anthropology, ecology, and more, to deliver a more holistic, evidence-driven approach to understanding outbreak dynamics at the local level.
When combined with One Health principles, IOA's approach is further enhanced. One Health recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, and emphasizes the need for cross-sector collaboration to optimize health outcomes. This framework enables a more holistic understanding of disease dynamics by incorporating data from not only public health, but also veterinary medicine, wildlife biology, environmental science, and many other disciplines. Figure 1 below shows examples of how multi-sectoral, transdisciplinary data from human, animal, and environmental sources can be applied through the IOA approach.