When I was a little girl dreaming of becoming a veterinarian, I envisioned myself examining a puppy on a shiny silver table as its tail wagged. My patients were my stuffed animals. I’d place ace bandages around their legs and give them “injections” with my pretend needle. I’d listen to their imaginary hearts and peer into their plastic eyes. What I didn’t know then was that my vision of what being a veterinarian looked like was an oversimplification.

I confirmed my dream of becoming a veterinarian when I lost Bonnie, my beloved family dog, to lymphoma. I realized I had a strong desire to help animals like her that were sick. A few years later, my grandmother was diagnosed with lymphoma and I witnessed her lose the same battle. That is when I recognized that veterinary and human medicine are not separate entities, rather, they are different views of the same thing: medicine.  

Humans are just another species in the vast pool of animal species on this planet. We all share much of the biology that makes our bodies work, and as such, we share diseases. Recognizing this interdependence of human and animal health is what led the medical world to the conclusion that there is only “one medicine.” This phrase, originally coined by late veterinary epidemiologist and parasitologist Dr. Calvin Schwabe, serves to encourage a more interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to medicine. It serves to highlight the various and important roles the veterinarian plays in global health.

The nature of the veterinarian’s training allows us to impart important knowledge and skills in the fight against zoonotic diseases, which by definition start in animals and spillover into human health. Our training in livestock health and wellbeing prepares us to be leaders in food safety. Those with expertise in wild animal biology are at the forefront of wildlife conservation. Our comparative medical training, in which we are taught how to extrapolate from one species to another, makes us the perfect scientists for translational research.

That is exactly what we do in the Comparative Ophthalmology Laboratory at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. We study inherited eye diseases in dogs and cats that also occur in people, allowing us to extrapolate across species. We can learn more about the processes of these shared diseases and see how different treatments work in animals to understand how they are likely to work in people. We can help people by helping animals. We collaborate with scientists in a variety of fields to do this, including scientists focused specifically on the human disease and medical doctors treating patients in hospitals. We take this collaborative and interdisciplinary approach and use it to make an impact.

That is the true importance of the “one medicine” concept; if we, as a broad range of medical professionals and scientists, work together, we can accomplish more than we could alone. If we collaborate, we can more effectively fight zoonotic diseases, maintain a safe food supply, and continue to pursue treatments and cures for shared diseases. If we acknowledge the power of “one medicine,” we can impact global health and create a healthier world for all, regardless of the species.