News

World experts in One Health contribute to new Checklist for One Health Epidemiological Reporting of Evidence (COHERE)

 

Submitted to the One Health Initiative website August 2, 2017 by:

 

*Meghan F. Davis, DVM, MPH, PhD                                       

https://www.jhsph.edu/faculty/directory/profile/3059/meghan-frost-davis 
Assistant Professor
Department of Environmental Health and Engineering
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (USA)
mdavis65@jhu.edu

 

**Peter M. Rabinowitz, MD, MPH

http://deohs.washington.edu/faculty/rabinowitz_peter

Associate Professor

Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences

Department of Global Health, Department of Family Medicine

Division of Allergy and Infectious Disease (adjunct)

University of Washington School of Public Health, School of Medicine

Director, Center for One Health Research (USA)

Peterr7@uw.edu

 

A world-renowned group of ten experts http://deohs.washington.edu/cohr/cohere-expert-review-group contributed to the design of the newly-reported Checklist for One Health Epidemiological Reporting of Evidence (COHERE), recently published by the journal One Health http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352771417300022.  This tool consists of a set of 19 standards for components that should be included in the conduct and reporting of One Health studies that use observational or interventional epidemiological designs.  It also aims to promote the concept that One Health studies should integrate data from humans, animals, and their environment.  Therefore, experts were included to represent aspects of all three of these domains.

“The expert participants' perspectives enriched the tool by the very nature of addressing their experiences across disciplines,” noted Dr. Lisa A. Conti https://goo.gl/MLVRk1, a veterinarian member of the One Health Initiative Autonomous pro bono team www.onehealthinitiative.com, the 2017 recipient of the prestigious American Veterinary Epidemiology Society’s (AVES) KF Meyer/James H. Steele Gold Headed Cane Award https://goo.gl/3yaCpK, and internationally recognized One Health leader, who was a co-author on the manuscript.   Dr. Conti added, “...their thoughtful consideration of a unified approach was critical to refining the tool.”  Inclusion of many experts in the process was essential to make the tool flexible to researchers who represent a wide variety of professions and disciplines.

The authors of the manuscript and the expert review group agreed that COHERE should be a living document—one that could be amended to respond to the inclusion of new disciplines, technologies, and ideas. They encourage editors, reviewers, authors, and readers of the One Health literature to contact the COHERE team with suggestions.

 

*Dr. Davis, a veterinarian, is listed on the One Health Initiative website’s Supporters page http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/supporters.php.

**Dr. Rabinowitz, is a longstanding physician member of the One Health Initiative team’s Advisory Board http://www.onehealthinitiative.com/advBoard.php.