- Email: [email protected]
Global veterinary leadership
Vet Clin Food Anim 18 (2002) 389–399
Global veterinary leadership G. Gale Wagner, PhDa,*, Corrie C. Brown, DVM, PhDb a
Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University Drive and Agronomy Road, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA b Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, D.W. Brooks Drive, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Population growth, economic stagnation, and environmental stress are global issues that have changed the way veterinarians view their role in society and what they now understand as their responsibility to the global community. The escalating value of food animals and products in world markets has led to increased international movement of these commodities. As a consequence, there is also a serious and worldwide vulnerability to emerging disease agents that may move, or may be introduced purposely, to susceptible animal or human populations. The public discussion on vulnerability, coupled with the almost weekly report of some food hazard due to the presence of an infectious disease agent, has reached the point in some media that there is now a lack of serious distinction between infectious and emerging diseases, invasive and exotic diseases, between food safety and food security, and between public health hazards and bioterrorism. Each of these areas also is becoming identified not only as a major risk to the success of free trade but as an issue of national security as well. Veterinarians will be among the first to respond to such problems, especially those that affect food security. A concept of global veterinary leadership allows us to engage our professors in a process that makes them aware of the increasingly vital role they play in education; one that better equips new veterinarians for a successful career in the world community. There is a global necessity to link food safety and veterinary medicine, emerging and food animal diseases, and economics and food security. Veterinarians generally lack a comprehensive understanding of how to use information technology and how food security and sustainable agriculture are related to the production of safe food. Many countries currently look to the * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (G.G. Wagner). 0749-0720/02/$ - see front matter 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. PII: S 0 7 4 9 - 0 7 2 0 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 3 4 - 8
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United States in developing their own approaches for risk analysis, food safety, and trade policy, decisions that are related directly to veterinary medicine. Recent studies conducted by the American Veterinary Medical Association [1] and the Pan-American Council on Education in Veterinary Sciences [2] emphasize the need to work together to design new courses on information technology, transgenics, food safety, and so forth and to harmonize the veterinary profession in the Americas. Such reports and initiatives also provide the rationale to develop a strategy for curriculum harmonization. Veterinarians working for multinational corporations and governments are being challenged to evaluate and use information technologies, to expand the production of pathogen-free food animals and products, and to operate in a globally competitive and environmentally responsible way [3]. World Trade Organization trade agreements depend on a concept of veterinary equivalency. In broad terms, the assumption is made that veterinary services, regulations, tests, and education are similar among the countries. It is known that this assumption is not the case. The accurate diagnosis of exotic diseases is paramount to maintaining economic viability, so the breadth and quality of international veterinary medicine also affect international trade. The concept of globalization of veterinary medicine education has emerged from the accumulating evidence of changing needs and expectations and that current programs that might provide veterinary leadership on these issues are needed. The Veterinary Market Study [1] is the best and most recent example. Others recent indicators include the rationale behind the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) efforts to add emerging and foreign animal disease modules to the veterinary curriculum; the federal ‘‘Food Safety Initiative’’; the USDA, Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service international initiative, entitled ‘‘Globalizing Agricultural Science and Education Programs for America’’; the USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service ‘‘Emerging Markets’’ program; the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) initiatives on curriculum harmonization in other countries; the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges initiatives on international issues in education; the ‘‘Science, Politics and Animal Health Policy’’ fellowship program jointly presented by the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University; and the recent White House initiative on international education [4]. Global veterinary leadership is a concept that addresses the critical need for veterinarians with knowledge not only in areas traditionally associated with veterinary medicine but also in the global issues of food safety, trade, and information management. We must expand opportunities for veterinarians to develop an understanding of global interdependence and the commonality of veterinary and food safety and security problems as well as the skills to help solve them. In so doing, we will provide a framework for harmonizing veterinary medicine in this hemisphere.
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What is globalization? To explore and fully appreciate the complex nature and evolving concepts of globalization, the reader is referred to ‘‘The Globalization Web Site,’’ developed by Lechner [5], and the related links that he has provided. Lechner says that ‘‘…globalization broadly refers to the expansion of global linkages, the organization of social life on a global scale, and the growth of a global consciousness, hence to the consolidation of world society’’ [5]. This definition has a lot of merit, but it is open to differing interpretations, especially if we want to understand the effect of globalization on veterinary medicine. Jim Christiansen, a Professor of Agricultural Education at Texas A&M University and a long-time internationalist, has a more compelling definition (personal communication, May 2002): ‘‘...globalization is a rapidly increasing social, cultural, political, and economic process of awareness, though not necessarily acceptance, of a global consciousness and interdependence by which people make decisions about their life and their work, decisions affected or influenced by expansion and interconnectedness of linkages throughout the whole world, not just the region or country in which they live and work, and decisions that over time collectively result in social, cultural, political, and economic consequences, both intended and unintended.’’ The key phrase is ‘‘a rapidly increasing social, cultural, political, and economic process of awareness.’’ Thomas Friedman, in his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree [6], described well the political and economic events of the late 1980s and early 1990s that changed our perspective from geopolitics to globalization. Globalization is a process; it is the flow of ideas, information, cultural values, and people. It is also the unrestricted flow of capital, goods, and services. But globalization has to have a context to be understood. One of Friedman’s definitions that applies especially well to our argument is: ‘‘…globalization …is the…challenge of technological change and economic integration…uniting the world’’ [6]. His change engines were information technology and free trade. With sobering prescience, Friedman also worked through the consequences of globalization; once you are part of it, you better keep up or ‘‘…your job, community, or workplace can be changed at any moment by anonymous economic and technological forces that are anything but stable’’ [6].
Globalization of veterinary education The globalization of veterinary medicine shares a history of change during the late 1980s and early 1990s similar to that described by Friedman [6]. Problem-based learning, information technology, and the relative advantage (to the student) of dialectic instruction brought much discussion and some changes during that time [7]. O’Neil [8] pointed to the Pew National Veterinary Education Program (PNVEP), initiated in 1987, as having had a significant effect on the educational system in general, including internationalization. The
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PNVEP engaged 31 veterinary colleges in North America (27 in the United States; four in Canada) in a series of educational management and leadership development sessions. Each US college then received funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts (the Max Bell Foundation funded the Canadian schools) to prepare strategic plans, which had to include specific program themes based on faculty strengths and interests. Of the 27 US plans, most indicated that problem-based learning, computer technology, and faculty teaching-skill development were of high strategic importance. Student diversification was considered the main reason for change, and the strategic plans from seven colleges indicated that an international program should be part of the change. Pritchard [9] discussed the PNVEP results in the context of the AVMA manpower study [10]. He discounted concerns about the then-perceived oversupply of veterinarians. Instead, he discussed external forces that were affecting veterinary education, including globalization, and concluded that ‘‘today, and for the foreseeable future, a general veterinary education does not meet society’s needs [9].’’ Internationalization, as a goal for US higher education, came into the spotlight by the mid-1990s. Two studies during that time dealt with the process of internationalization and discussed the effect of organized international symposia, study-abroad opportunities, visiting professors and students from other countries, international research, and so forth [11,12]. By mid-1996, the internationalization of veterinary medicine was considered well enough under way to become the subject of the 14th Symposium on Veterinary Medical Education, held in Athens, Georgia [13]. The conference concentrated on process and essentially provided a roadmap for internationalizing colleges of veterinary medicine. A recent commentary by Gustafsson [14] suggested, however, that despite some success with the process of internationalization since 1996, the veterinary education establishment was still unable ‘‘…to produce a global veterinarian.’’ The ability to think globally will not follow a course in international veterinary medicine. Instead, it will develop from international experiences in which students learn that there is a cultural overlay to any question, including the practice of veterinary medicine, and that a global veterinary education is dependent on great minds that are well distributed around the world. In the broadest sense, globalization is education, and the objective is to enable the practitioner to think globally and to become a ‘‘global veterinarian.’’ Brown et al [15] summarized another view of the changing demands on veterinary medicine and education as presented at a conference in mid2001 that explored the relationships among veterinary regulation, veterinary education, and the world food industry. Both corporate executives and regulatory veterinarians from North and South America agreed on the urgent need for veterinarians with training in trade issues, economics, risk assessment, and information management. Although the need for such individuals is not new, the current and growing demand is urgent because companies and governments no longer have the time to train new veterinarians in those
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skills. As with other recent meetings, the students who participated kept the conference lively. One University of Georgia veterinary student, Laura Edison, a ‘‘new’’ internationalist, defined a global veterinarian as one who is ‘‘…educated about trade and corresponding animal and public health issues facing the global community, is adept at understanding and being sensitive to the needs of other countries as dictated by their culture and economy, and is skilled at communicating knowledge to find resources and solutions to promote animal and human health and safe trade [15].’’ The rationale for a strong, experiential international program can be paraphrased from Paul and Wilson’s [7] discussion of critical thinking skills in the veterinary curriculum. They pointed out that the value of a physiology course is in the clinical setting, when the student ‘‘thinks’’ physiologically. The ability to do that comes from the laboratory exercises and the clinical rotations, in which students understand why they are there and learn to question information, conclusions, and points of view. As noted previously, globalization is no different; a course on international veterinary medicine or cultural literacy does not induce global thinking. But experiencing the cultural aspects of veterinary practice and science in another country, as influenced by education, politics, and economics, contributes directly to the student’s discovery of critical, global understanding. Global veterinary medicine The US veterinary education enterprise is disturbingly fragile. There are high demands for veterinary education, and new students are diverse in background, experience, and expectations. The curriculum concentrates on companion animal medicine, and most new graduates pursue a position in a multiperson practice, in which the technology rivals that of most veterinary teaching hospitals and the client’s perspective about medical miracles increases with each visit. Numbers of veterinarians interested in food animal medicine, public policy, food safety, and international issues are increasing but at a slow pace [16]. Knowing what we know now about the recent experience in Great Britain, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the United States would find our veterinary regulatory establishment operating with an increasingly thin network of veterinary expertise, straining the budgets of the states and the USDA, and pushing our collective knowledge and technology to the limit. Almost overnight, situations such as FMD, airplanes, and anthrax become contemporary issues that change our focus on veterinary medicine relative to biosecurity, emerging diseases, and free trade. Expressed another way, because trade issues and vulnerability are global, our social contract is to be a global veterinarian. Small animal practitioners and wildlife veterinarians now form our first line of defense. That system seems to be working; probably seven or eight of the past 10 incursions of foreign or emerging animal diseases and pests
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have been intercepted by them: screwworm in a dog in Texas and a horse in Florida, South African ticks on a tortoise in Florida, West Nile virus infections of crows in New York, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever in dogs in North Carolina [17]. The small animal practitioner faces clients who read ProMED (a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, http://www.isid.org) and might want to discuss current topics like bovine spongiform encephalopathy and chronic wasting disease while their cat is being vaccinated. We do not believe that veterinary colleges are caught in a concept of education that ignores current issues. But the production of high-quality, entry-level general practitioners within 4 years does not leave much time for students to explore economics, foreign animal diseases, management, alternative medicine, language, animal health policy, and cultural literacy. There is also a growing student demand for international, corporate, and government externships. Although all of these needs seem to stretch the ability of the institution to keep pace, participating students relish the outreach, now generally referred to as the co-curriculum. When it works, the co-curriculum is integrated to meet individual student needs, for example, international externships, work-study on computer technology during breaks, and language training during the summer. Gustafsson [14] discussed the development of programs and opportunities that support a co-curriculum and are independent of both the formal curriculum and financial support from the dean’s office. Several such grant programs emerged in the 1990s and have been crucial to globalization. One is the Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/FIPSE); another is the National Defense University, National Security Education Program (http://www.ndu.edu/nsep/institutional_grants.htm); and a third one is the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service Higher Education Challenge Grant program (http://www.reeusda.gov). These programs embrace veterinary issues because they focus on problems, not area studies—an actual experience, not an idea. An example is an evaluation of how veterinary students in the United States and other countries are being trained to recognize and deal with foreign and emerging diseases of food animals. Support is primarily for student travel, so the effect is on the student because the program is individualized. Students work with practitioners, regulatory officials, faculty, and other students. Many foundations and other international agencies, secular and nonsecular, also support individual (or small-group) student involvement in specific aspects of international veterinary medicine, especially in public health, wildlife conservation, environmental impact, spay-neuter programs, marine mammals, and so forth. The unanticipated global electronic education resources generated by the FMD outbreak in Great Britain well illustrate that information technology is a driver of the veterinary profession, as are the stakeholders of the profession. As a dominant tool, information technology must
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be designed, used, and relied on to deliver the current issues and emerging problems that cannot be accommodated in the standardized curriculum. Clearly, part of our task as veterinarians is to access, manage, and use information technology. Information access includes Web pages, Web modules on specific topics, virtual conferences, asynchronous lectures, mediated case-based discussion, interactive CDs for study, and downloadable texts. Examples of Web reports on specific topics include FMD in Chile (http:// www.cvm.tamu.edu/fad/chile) [18]; problems in southern Brazil, such as FMD, babesiosis, and toxic plants (http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/nsep/ index.htm) [18]; a toxic plant affecting livestock production on Easter Island (http://www.calf.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/html/intl.html); and other foreign animal diseases, such as African horse sickness (http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/ fad/horse/horse.htm) and the infectious viral hemorrhagic disease of rabbits (http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/fad/rabbit/rabbit.htm). Veterinary education programs that foster global veterinary leadership recently have been summarized by Brown et al [19]. The University of California at Davis has a yearly field course in northern Mexico. Students with major interest in international medicine may pursue the Master of Preventive Veterinary Medicine or a new Masters International Program in collaboration with the Peace Corps. Iowa State University, College of Veterinary Medicine faculty and 86 veterinary students participated in six study-abroad programs in 2000, including China to evaluate acupuncture and Germany to discuss bovine spongiform encephalopathy, antimicrobial resistance, food safety, and production practices. Tufts Veterinary School has the well-known International Veterinary Medicine Program that involves a course in International Veterinary Medicine; elective courses in cultural literacy and international research; and summer international projects in livestock development, wildlife medicine, and conservation medicine; a separate 4-year certificate program; and a dual DVM-MA degree program with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy for students who want to work in the field of international development and conservation policy. Washington State University currently offers several electives in international veterinary medicine and cultural literacy and externships in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union. Other examples include the Population Medicine program at North Carolina State University; the Food Safety program at Michigan State University; the Corporate and Government Affairs program at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maryland; collaborations supported by the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health that enable veterinary and other health sciences students to pursue research projects in various countries; and a variety of international fellowships sponsored by agencies and scientific societies such as the National Security Education Program, the Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education, and the American Society for Microbiology. The overarching theme of these examples of globalization is to provide students
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with the encouragement and opportunity to pursue international opportunities. Globalization automatically includes the benefits gained from visiting (or permanent) faculty and students from other countries. Many faculty members attend international meetings, deliver invited lectures, and pursue sabbatical leaves at universities in other countries, and some are international consultants. The outcome is an expanded relationship among faculty that often internationalizes course content, highlights harmonization in education that already exists, and provides cultural awareness. International students mixed in with our own through externship or internship programs lend language, culture, and problem-solving experiences from their country and community setting. From these interactions, students quickly understand that food safety and food security are global, that vulnerability is global, and that veterinary education has to be global. The result in terms of globalization is that our veterinarians no longer wait to see what might happen; they have been there to see why it happens. A strategy for global veterinary leadership Global veterinary leadership focuses the attention of veterinarians on the theme of leadership in a global environment as they pursue their professional goals. Perception is important; the intent is not to build a new program, but to use what is available in a different way. Such a program could build on existing capabilities as veterinarians bring an international dimension to their practices, ensuring that they do not get lost in the experience but work to integrate it into their community relationships and their careers. The goal is to develop an understanding of global interdependence and the commonality of veterinary and food safety and security problems plus the skills to help solve them. The authors believe that such a program addresses the critical need for US veterinarians with knowledge not only in areas traditionally associated with veterinary medicine but also in the global issues of food safety, trade, and information management. The authors propose a global veterinary leadership program that is structured as both continuing education and an international certificate course. Continuing-education modules would be offered on the Web and could include emerging and exotic animal diseases, issues that affect trade in food and food animals, economics of animal health policy, principles of risk assessment, and so forth. Elements of the international certificate course might include leadership training; directed studies such as language courses, international development, economics, and political science; and comprehensive internships with multinational food industries, commodity groups, or regulatory agencies within the United States or in another country. The work-study internship should involve some aspect of international veterinary medicine related to food and food animal trade, for example, food safety, food security, international livestock trade, emerging diseases, public
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health, international marketing, and so forth. We anticipate that the internship opportunities should be developed with corporate and government partners, the multinational companies and regulatory agencies that are shaping the world’s food supply and trade agreements and that understand the need to foster a relationship with the US veterinary profession. Ultimately, the program should allow us to better evaluate veterinary education and practice as both human resource and technologic development in different cultural settings.
Summary The public needs no reminder that deadly infectious diseases such as FMD could emerge in any country at any moment, or that national food security could be compromised by Salmonella or Listeria infections. Protections against these risks include the knowledge that appropriate and equivalent veterinary education will enable detection and characterization of emerging disease agents, as well as an appropriate response, wherever they occur. Global veterinary leadership is needed to reduce the global threat of infectious diseases of major food animal and public health importance. We believe that the co-curriculum is an excellent way to prepare and train veterinarians and future leaders who understand and can deal with global issues. The key to the success of the program is the veterinarian’s understanding that there is a cultural basis to the practice of veterinary medicine in any country. The result will be a cadre of veterinarians, faculty, and other professionals who are better able (language and culture) to understand the effects of change brought about by free trade and the importance of interdisciplinary and institutional relationships to deal effectively with national and regional issues of food safety and security. New global veterinary leadership programs will build on interests, experience, ideas, and ambitions. A college that wishes to take advantage of this diversity must offer opportunities that interest veterinarians throughout their careers and that preferably connect academic study with intensive experiential training in another country. At its best, the global veterinary leadership program would include a partnership between veterinarians and several international learning centers, a responsiveness to the identified international outreach needs of the profession, and attention to critical thinking and reflection. The global veterinary leadership program we have described is intended to be a set of ideas meant to promote collaboration, coalitions, and discussion among veterinarians and veterinary educators who may be intrigued by the concept. The impact of the program can be summarized as follows: Outreach Programs: The global veterinary leadership program will establish new partnerships between veterinarians and veterinary college faculty as they supervise the international internships and see a relationship between their goals and the value of food safety to this country.
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Strategic Opportunity: The program will build on the critical role that US veterinarians and veterinary colleges already play in strengthening the safety of free trade in this hemisphere. Diversity in an Age of Specialization: The program will combine a global orientation, language ability, and access to comprehensive, researchand economic-related work/study opportunities to expose veterinarians to the expanding world market for veterinary expertise. New Linkages Through Corporate Partners: Through the success and high visibility of current research and education programs, most veterinary colleges are well positioned to engage industry, government, and university leaders in ways to use the proposed program to increase the flow of new ideas and talent into the world food enterprise. International Funding: A new partnership among veterinarians, industry, government, and university leaders can coordinate strong multilateral requests for funding from national and international sources. An Interdisciplinary Strategy that Benefits Veterinary Medicine: The program will combine the diverse veterinary research and education system with our strong national and international network of collaborators to provide globally competent veterinarians who will be needed for the corporate and public opportunities of the future. References [1] Brown JP, Silverman JD. The current and future market for veterinarians and veterinary medical services in the U.S. J Am Vet Med Assoc 1999;215:161–83. [2] Anonymous. Proceedings of the Pan-American Council on Higher Education in Veterinary Science, Valdivia, Chile: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University Austral de Chile; March, 1999. [3] King LJ. The future of veterinarians in government. J Vet Med Educ 2000;27:23–30. [4] Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies. International education policy. The White House, April 19, 2000. [5] Lechner F. The globalization Web site. Available at: http://www.emory.edu/SOC/globalization/issues01.html. Accessed March 2002. [6] Friedman TL. The lexus and the olive tree. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1999. p. 11, 355. [7] Paul RW, Wilson RB. Critical thinking: the key to veterinary educational change. J Vet Med Educ 1993;20:34–6. [8] O’Neil EH. Trends in veterinary medical education. J Vet Med Educ 1991;18:2–5. [9] Pritchard WR. Strategic positioning of the veterinary profession for the needs of the 1990s and beyond. J Vet Med Educ 1991;18:6–10. [10] Wise JK, Kushman JE. U.S. Veterinary Medical Manpower Study: demand and supply 1980 to 2000. Schaumburg (IL): American Veterinary Medical Association; 1985. [11] Internationalizing U.S. universities: a time for leadership. In: Conference proceedings, June 5–7, 1990. Spokane (WA): International Program Development Office, Washington State University, Pullman; 1990. [12] Higher education for international competence and competitiveness: partners on a rising curve. Austin: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; 1990. [13] The internationalization of veterinary education: strengths, challenges and opportunities. In: Proceedings of the 14th Symposium on Veterinary Medical Education, June 28–30
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[14] [15]
[16]
[17] [18]
[19]
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and July 1, 1996, Athens, The University of Georgia. J Vet Med Educ 1996;23(Special Issue): 73 p. Gustafsson BK. Globalization: veterinary education lagging behind. J Vet Med Educ 2001;28:91–3. Brown C, Carbajal J, Wagner G. Preparing the veterinary profession for corporate and trade issues in the Americas: Proceedings of a Conference on Synergism and Globalization, Santiago, Chile, May 6–8, 2001. J Vet Med Educ 2001;28:56–61. Black LS, Thatcher CD, Hueston WD. Outcomes assessment of the Center for Government and Corporate Veterinary Medicine at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. J Vet Med Ed 2001;28:62–8. Fiala J. Small animal DVMs face emerging diseases. DVM Newsmagazine 2001;June:30–1. Wagner G, Brown C. Support from a National Defense University, National Security Education Program grant. Veterinary curriculum issues in the new millennium: emerging diseases, food safety, bioterrorism and food security. (DASW01–99-R-0021). Brown C, Hird D, Roth J, Wagner G, Jost C, Memon M. Internationalization of veterinary medicine: educational opportunities. J Vet Med Educ; In press.
Global veterinary leadership G. Gale Wagner, PhDa,*, Corrie C. Brown, DVM, PhDb a
Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University Drive and Agronomy Road, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA b Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, D.W. Brooks Drive, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Population growth, economic stagnation, and environmental stress are global issues that have changed the way veterinarians view their role in society and what they now understand as their responsibility to the global community. The escalating value of food animals and products in world markets has led to increased international movement of these commodities. As a consequence, there is also a serious and worldwide vulnerability to emerging disease agents that may move, or may be introduced purposely, to susceptible animal or human populations. The public discussion on vulnerability, coupled with the almost weekly report of some food hazard due to the presence of an infectious disease agent, has reached the point in some media that there is now a lack of serious distinction between infectious and emerging diseases, invasive and exotic diseases, between food safety and food security, and between public health hazards and bioterrorism. Each of these areas also is becoming identified not only as a major risk to the success of free trade but as an issue of national security as well. Veterinarians will be among the first to respond to such problems, especially those that affect food security. A concept of global veterinary leadership allows us to engage our professors in a process that makes them aware of the increasingly vital role they play in education; one that better equips new veterinarians for a successful career in the world community. There is a global necessity to link food safety and veterinary medicine, emerging and food animal diseases, and economics and food security. Veterinarians generally lack a comprehensive understanding of how to use information technology and how food security and sustainable agriculture are related to the production of safe food. Many countries currently look to the * Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (G.G. Wagner). 0749-0720/02/$ - see front matter 2002, Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved. PII: S 0 7 4 9 - 0 7 2 0 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 3 4 - 8
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United States in developing their own approaches for risk analysis, food safety, and trade policy, decisions that are related directly to veterinary medicine. Recent studies conducted by the American Veterinary Medical Association [1] and the Pan-American Council on Education in Veterinary Sciences [2] emphasize the need to work together to design new courses on information technology, transgenics, food safety, and so forth and to harmonize the veterinary profession in the Americas. Such reports and initiatives also provide the rationale to develop a strategy for curriculum harmonization. Veterinarians working for multinational corporations and governments are being challenged to evaluate and use information technologies, to expand the production of pathogen-free food animals and products, and to operate in a globally competitive and environmentally responsible way [3]. World Trade Organization trade agreements depend on a concept of veterinary equivalency. In broad terms, the assumption is made that veterinary services, regulations, tests, and education are similar among the countries. It is known that this assumption is not the case. The accurate diagnosis of exotic diseases is paramount to maintaining economic viability, so the breadth and quality of international veterinary medicine also affect international trade. The concept of globalization of veterinary medicine education has emerged from the accumulating evidence of changing needs and expectations and that current programs that might provide veterinary leadership on these issues are needed. The Veterinary Market Study [1] is the best and most recent example. Others recent indicators include the rationale behind the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) efforts to add emerging and foreign animal disease modules to the veterinary curriculum; the federal ‘‘Food Safety Initiative’’; the USDA, Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service international initiative, entitled ‘‘Globalizing Agricultural Science and Education Programs for America’’; the USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service ‘‘Emerging Markets’’ program; the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) initiatives on curriculum harmonization in other countries; the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges initiatives on international issues in education; the ‘‘Science, Politics and Animal Health Policy’’ fellowship program jointly presented by the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University; and the recent White House initiative on international education [4]. Global veterinary leadership is a concept that addresses the critical need for veterinarians with knowledge not only in areas traditionally associated with veterinary medicine but also in the global issues of food safety, trade, and information management. We must expand opportunities for veterinarians to develop an understanding of global interdependence and the commonality of veterinary and food safety and security problems as well as the skills to help solve them. In so doing, we will provide a framework for harmonizing veterinary medicine in this hemisphere.
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What is globalization? To explore and fully appreciate the complex nature and evolving concepts of globalization, the reader is referred to ‘‘The Globalization Web Site,’’ developed by Lechner [5], and the related links that he has provided. Lechner says that ‘‘…globalization broadly refers to the expansion of global linkages, the organization of social life on a global scale, and the growth of a global consciousness, hence to the consolidation of world society’’ [5]. This definition has a lot of merit, but it is open to differing interpretations, especially if we want to understand the effect of globalization on veterinary medicine. Jim Christiansen, a Professor of Agricultural Education at Texas A&M University and a long-time internationalist, has a more compelling definition (personal communication, May 2002): ‘‘...globalization is a rapidly increasing social, cultural, political, and economic process of awareness, though not necessarily acceptance, of a global consciousness and interdependence by which people make decisions about their life and their work, decisions affected or influenced by expansion and interconnectedness of linkages throughout the whole world, not just the region or country in which they live and work, and decisions that over time collectively result in social, cultural, political, and economic consequences, both intended and unintended.’’ The key phrase is ‘‘a rapidly increasing social, cultural, political, and economic process of awareness.’’ Thomas Friedman, in his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree [6], described well the political and economic events of the late 1980s and early 1990s that changed our perspective from geopolitics to globalization. Globalization is a process; it is the flow of ideas, information, cultural values, and people. It is also the unrestricted flow of capital, goods, and services. But globalization has to have a context to be understood. One of Friedman’s definitions that applies especially well to our argument is: ‘‘…globalization …is the…challenge of technological change and economic integration…uniting the world’’ [6]. His change engines were information technology and free trade. With sobering prescience, Friedman also worked through the consequences of globalization; once you are part of it, you better keep up or ‘‘…your job, community, or workplace can be changed at any moment by anonymous economic and technological forces that are anything but stable’’ [6].
Globalization of veterinary education The globalization of veterinary medicine shares a history of change during the late 1980s and early 1990s similar to that described by Friedman [6]. Problem-based learning, information technology, and the relative advantage (to the student) of dialectic instruction brought much discussion and some changes during that time [7]. O’Neil [8] pointed to the Pew National Veterinary Education Program (PNVEP), initiated in 1987, as having had a significant effect on the educational system in general, including internationalization. The
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PNVEP engaged 31 veterinary colleges in North America (27 in the United States; four in Canada) in a series of educational management and leadership development sessions. Each US college then received funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts (the Max Bell Foundation funded the Canadian schools) to prepare strategic plans, which had to include specific program themes based on faculty strengths and interests. Of the 27 US plans, most indicated that problem-based learning, computer technology, and faculty teaching-skill development were of high strategic importance. Student diversification was considered the main reason for change, and the strategic plans from seven colleges indicated that an international program should be part of the change. Pritchard [9] discussed the PNVEP results in the context of the AVMA manpower study [10]. He discounted concerns about the then-perceived oversupply of veterinarians. Instead, he discussed external forces that were affecting veterinary education, including globalization, and concluded that ‘‘today, and for the foreseeable future, a general veterinary education does not meet society’s needs [9].’’ Internationalization, as a goal for US higher education, came into the spotlight by the mid-1990s. Two studies during that time dealt with the process of internationalization and discussed the effect of organized international symposia, study-abroad opportunities, visiting professors and students from other countries, international research, and so forth [11,12]. By mid-1996, the internationalization of veterinary medicine was considered well enough under way to become the subject of the 14th Symposium on Veterinary Medical Education, held in Athens, Georgia [13]. The conference concentrated on process and essentially provided a roadmap for internationalizing colleges of veterinary medicine. A recent commentary by Gustafsson [14] suggested, however, that despite some success with the process of internationalization since 1996, the veterinary education establishment was still unable ‘‘…to produce a global veterinarian.’’ The ability to think globally will not follow a course in international veterinary medicine. Instead, it will develop from international experiences in which students learn that there is a cultural overlay to any question, including the practice of veterinary medicine, and that a global veterinary education is dependent on great minds that are well distributed around the world. In the broadest sense, globalization is education, and the objective is to enable the practitioner to think globally and to become a ‘‘global veterinarian.’’ Brown et al [15] summarized another view of the changing demands on veterinary medicine and education as presented at a conference in mid2001 that explored the relationships among veterinary regulation, veterinary education, and the world food industry. Both corporate executives and regulatory veterinarians from North and South America agreed on the urgent need for veterinarians with training in trade issues, economics, risk assessment, and information management. Although the need for such individuals is not new, the current and growing demand is urgent because companies and governments no longer have the time to train new veterinarians in those
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skills. As with other recent meetings, the students who participated kept the conference lively. One University of Georgia veterinary student, Laura Edison, a ‘‘new’’ internationalist, defined a global veterinarian as one who is ‘‘…educated about trade and corresponding animal and public health issues facing the global community, is adept at understanding and being sensitive to the needs of other countries as dictated by their culture and economy, and is skilled at communicating knowledge to find resources and solutions to promote animal and human health and safe trade [15].’’ The rationale for a strong, experiential international program can be paraphrased from Paul and Wilson’s [7] discussion of critical thinking skills in the veterinary curriculum. They pointed out that the value of a physiology course is in the clinical setting, when the student ‘‘thinks’’ physiologically. The ability to do that comes from the laboratory exercises and the clinical rotations, in which students understand why they are there and learn to question information, conclusions, and points of view. As noted previously, globalization is no different; a course on international veterinary medicine or cultural literacy does not induce global thinking. But experiencing the cultural aspects of veterinary practice and science in another country, as influenced by education, politics, and economics, contributes directly to the student’s discovery of critical, global understanding. Global veterinary medicine The US veterinary education enterprise is disturbingly fragile. There are high demands for veterinary education, and new students are diverse in background, experience, and expectations. The curriculum concentrates on companion animal medicine, and most new graduates pursue a position in a multiperson practice, in which the technology rivals that of most veterinary teaching hospitals and the client’s perspective about medical miracles increases with each visit. Numbers of veterinarians interested in food animal medicine, public policy, food safety, and international issues are increasing but at a slow pace [16]. Knowing what we know now about the recent experience in Great Britain, foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the United States would find our veterinary regulatory establishment operating with an increasingly thin network of veterinary expertise, straining the budgets of the states and the USDA, and pushing our collective knowledge and technology to the limit. Almost overnight, situations such as FMD, airplanes, and anthrax become contemporary issues that change our focus on veterinary medicine relative to biosecurity, emerging diseases, and free trade. Expressed another way, because trade issues and vulnerability are global, our social contract is to be a global veterinarian. Small animal practitioners and wildlife veterinarians now form our first line of defense. That system seems to be working; probably seven or eight of the past 10 incursions of foreign or emerging animal diseases and pests
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have been intercepted by them: screwworm in a dog in Texas and a horse in Florida, South African ticks on a tortoise in Florida, West Nile virus infections of crows in New York, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever in dogs in North Carolina [17]. The small animal practitioner faces clients who read ProMED (a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases, http://www.isid.org) and might want to discuss current topics like bovine spongiform encephalopathy and chronic wasting disease while their cat is being vaccinated. We do not believe that veterinary colleges are caught in a concept of education that ignores current issues. But the production of high-quality, entry-level general practitioners within 4 years does not leave much time for students to explore economics, foreign animal diseases, management, alternative medicine, language, animal health policy, and cultural literacy. There is also a growing student demand for international, corporate, and government externships. Although all of these needs seem to stretch the ability of the institution to keep pace, participating students relish the outreach, now generally referred to as the co-curriculum. When it works, the co-curriculum is integrated to meet individual student needs, for example, international externships, work-study on computer technology during breaks, and language training during the summer. Gustafsson [14] discussed the development of programs and opportunities that support a co-curriculum and are independent of both the formal curriculum and financial support from the dean’s office. Several such grant programs emerged in the 1990s and have been crucial to globalization. One is the Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/FIPSE); another is the National Defense University, National Security Education Program (http://www.ndu.edu/nsep/institutional_grants.htm); and a third one is the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service Higher Education Challenge Grant program (http://www.reeusda.gov). These programs embrace veterinary issues because they focus on problems, not area studies—an actual experience, not an idea. An example is an evaluation of how veterinary students in the United States and other countries are being trained to recognize and deal with foreign and emerging diseases of food animals. Support is primarily for student travel, so the effect is on the student because the program is individualized. Students work with practitioners, regulatory officials, faculty, and other students. Many foundations and other international agencies, secular and nonsecular, also support individual (or small-group) student involvement in specific aspects of international veterinary medicine, especially in public health, wildlife conservation, environmental impact, spay-neuter programs, marine mammals, and so forth. The unanticipated global electronic education resources generated by the FMD outbreak in Great Britain well illustrate that information technology is a driver of the veterinary profession, as are the stakeholders of the profession. As a dominant tool, information technology must
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be designed, used, and relied on to deliver the current issues and emerging problems that cannot be accommodated in the standardized curriculum. Clearly, part of our task as veterinarians is to access, manage, and use information technology. Information access includes Web pages, Web modules on specific topics, virtual conferences, asynchronous lectures, mediated case-based discussion, interactive CDs for study, and downloadable texts. Examples of Web reports on specific topics include FMD in Chile (http:// www.cvm.tamu.edu/fad/chile) [18]; problems in southern Brazil, such as FMD, babesiosis, and toxic plants (http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/nsep/ index.htm) [18]; a toxic plant affecting livestock production on Easter Island (http://www.calf.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/html/intl.html); and other foreign animal diseases, such as African horse sickness (http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/ fad/horse/horse.htm) and the infectious viral hemorrhagic disease of rabbits (http://www.vet.uga.edu/vpp/fad/rabbit/rabbit.htm). Veterinary education programs that foster global veterinary leadership recently have been summarized by Brown et al [19]. The University of California at Davis has a yearly field course in northern Mexico. Students with major interest in international medicine may pursue the Master of Preventive Veterinary Medicine or a new Masters International Program in collaboration with the Peace Corps. Iowa State University, College of Veterinary Medicine faculty and 86 veterinary students participated in six study-abroad programs in 2000, including China to evaluate acupuncture and Germany to discuss bovine spongiform encephalopathy, antimicrobial resistance, food safety, and production practices. Tufts Veterinary School has the well-known International Veterinary Medicine Program that involves a course in International Veterinary Medicine; elective courses in cultural literacy and international research; and summer international projects in livestock development, wildlife medicine, and conservation medicine; a separate 4-year certificate program; and a dual DVM-MA degree program with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy for students who want to work in the field of international development and conservation policy. Washington State University currently offers several electives in international veterinary medicine and cultural literacy and externships in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union. Other examples include the Population Medicine program at North Carolina State University; the Food Safety program at Michigan State University; the Corporate and Government Affairs program at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maryland; collaborations supported by the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health that enable veterinary and other health sciences students to pursue research projects in various countries; and a variety of international fellowships sponsored by agencies and scientific societies such as the National Security Education Program, the Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education, and the American Society for Microbiology. The overarching theme of these examples of globalization is to provide students
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with the encouragement and opportunity to pursue international opportunities. Globalization automatically includes the benefits gained from visiting (or permanent) faculty and students from other countries. Many faculty members attend international meetings, deliver invited lectures, and pursue sabbatical leaves at universities in other countries, and some are international consultants. The outcome is an expanded relationship among faculty that often internationalizes course content, highlights harmonization in education that already exists, and provides cultural awareness. International students mixed in with our own through externship or internship programs lend language, culture, and problem-solving experiences from their country and community setting. From these interactions, students quickly understand that food safety and food security are global, that vulnerability is global, and that veterinary education has to be global. The result in terms of globalization is that our veterinarians no longer wait to see what might happen; they have been there to see why it happens. A strategy for global veterinary leadership Global veterinary leadership focuses the attention of veterinarians on the theme of leadership in a global environment as they pursue their professional goals. Perception is important; the intent is not to build a new program, but to use what is available in a different way. Such a program could build on existing capabilities as veterinarians bring an international dimension to their practices, ensuring that they do not get lost in the experience but work to integrate it into their community relationships and their careers. The goal is to develop an understanding of global interdependence and the commonality of veterinary and food safety and security problems plus the skills to help solve them. The authors believe that such a program addresses the critical need for US veterinarians with knowledge not only in areas traditionally associated with veterinary medicine but also in the global issues of food safety, trade, and information management. The authors propose a global veterinary leadership program that is structured as both continuing education and an international certificate course. Continuing-education modules would be offered on the Web and could include emerging and exotic animal diseases, issues that affect trade in food and food animals, economics of animal health policy, principles of risk assessment, and so forth. Elements of the international certificate course might include leadership training; directed studies such as language courses, international development, economics, and political science; and comprehensive internships with multinational food industries, commodity groups, or regulatory agencies within the United States or in another country. The work-study internship should involve some aspect of international veterinary medicine related to food and food animal trade, for example, food safety, food security, international livestock trade, emerging diseases, public
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health, international marketing, and so forth. We anticipate that the internship opportunities should be developed with corporate and government partners, the multinational companies and regulatory agencies that are shaping the world’s food supply and trade agreements and that understand the need to foster a relationship with the US veterinary profession. Ultimately, the program should allow us to better evaluate veterinary education and practice as both human resource and technologic development in different cultural settings.
Summary The public needs no reminder that deadly infectious diseases such as FMD could emerge in any country at any moment, or that national food security could be compromised by Salmonella or Listeria infections. Protections against these risks include the knowledge that appropriate and equivalent veterinary education will enable detection and characterization of emerging disease agents, as well as an appropriate response, wherever they occur. Global veterinary leadership is needed to reduce the global threat of infectious diseases of major food animal and public health importance. We believe that the co-curriculum is an excellent way to prepare and train veterinarians and future leaders who understand and can deal with global issues. The key to the success of the program is the veterinarian’s understanding that there is a cultural basis to the practice of veterinary medicine in any country. The result will be a cadre of veterinarians, faculty, and other professionals who are better able (language and culture) to understand the effects of change brought about by free trade and the importance of interdisciplinary and institutional relationships to deal effectively with national and regional issues of food safety and security. New global veterinary leadership programs will build on interests, experience, ideas, and ambitions. A college that wishes to take advantage of this diversity must offer opportunities that interest veterinarians throughout their careers and that preferably connect academic study with intensive experiential training in another country. At its best, the global veterinary leadership program would include a partnership between veterinarians and several international learning centers, a responsiveness to the identified international outreach needs of the profession, and attention to critical thinking and reflection. The global veterinary leadership program we have described is intended to be a set of ideas meant to promote collaboration, coalitions, and discussion among veterinarians and veterinary educators who may be intrigued by the concept. The impact of the program can be summarized as follows: Outreach Programs: The global veterinary leadership program will establish new partnerships between veterinarians and veterinary college faculty as they supervise the international internships and see a relationship between their goals and the value of food safety to this country.
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Strategic Opportunity: The program will build on the critical role that US veterinarians and veterinary colleges already play in strengthening the safety of free trade in this hemisphere. Diversity in an Age of Specialization: The program will combine a global orientation, language ability, and access to comprehensive, researchand economic-related work/study opportunities to expose veterinarians to the expanding world market for veterinary expertise. New Linkages Through Corporate Partners: Through the success and high visibility of current research and education programs, most veterinary colleges are well positioned to engage industry, government, and university leaders in ways to use the proposed program to increase the flow of new ideas and talent into the world food enterprise. International Funding: A new partnership among veterinarians, industry, government, and university leaders can coordinate strong multilateral requests for funding from national and international sources. An Interdisciplinary Strategy that Benefits Veterinary Medicine: The program will combine the diverse veterinary research and education system with our strong national and international network of collaborators to provide globally competent veterinarians who will be needed for the corporate and public opportunities of the future. References [1] Brown JP, Silverman JD. The current and future market for veterinarians and veterinary medical services in the U.S. J Am Vet Med Assoc 1999;215:161–83. [2] Anonymous. Proceedings of the Pan-American Council on Higher Education in Veterinary Science, Valdivia, Chile: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University Austral de Chile; March, 1999. [3] King LJ. The future of veterinarians in government. J Vet Med Educ 2000;27:23–30. [4] Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies. International education policy. The White House, April 19, 2000. [5] Lechner F. The globalization Web site. Available at: http://www.emory.edu/SOC/globalization/issues01.html. Accessed March 2002. [6] Friedman TL. The lexus and the olive tree. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1999. p. 11, 355. [7] Paul RW, Wilson RB. Critical thinking: the key to veterinary educational change. J Vet Med Educ 1993;20:34–6. [8] O’Neil EH. Trends in veterinary medical education. J Vet Med Educ 1991;18:2–5. [9] Pritchard WR. Strategic positioning of the veterinary profession for the needs of the 1990s and beyond. J Vet Med Educ 1991;18:6–10. [10] Wise JK, Kushman JE. U.S. Veterinary Medical Manpower Study: demand and supply 1980 to 2000. Schaumburg (IL): American Veterinary Medical Association; 1985. [11] Internationalizing U.S. universities: a time for leadership. In: Conference proceedings, June 5–7, 1990. Spokane (WA): International Program Development Office, Washington State University, Pullman; 1990. [12] Higher education for international competence and competitiveness: partners on a rising curve. Austin: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; 1990. [13] The internationalization of veterinary education: strengths, challenges and opportunities. In: Proceedings of the 14th Symposium on Veterinary Medical Education, June 28–30
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and July 1, 1996, Athens, The University of Georgia. J Vet Med Educ 1996;23(Special Issue): 73 p. Gustafsson BK. Globalization: veterinary education lagging behind. J Vet Med Educ 2001;28:91–3. Brown C, Carbajal J, Wagner G. Preparing the veterinary profession for corporate and trade issues in the Americas: Proceedings of a Conference on Synergism and Globalization, Santiago, Chile, May 6–8, 2001. J Vet Med Educ 2001;28:56–61. Black LS, Thatcher CD, Hueston WD. Outcomes assessment of the Center for Government and Corporate Veterinary Medicine at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. J Vet Med Ed 2001;28:62–8. Fiala J. Small animal DVMs face emerging diseases. DVM Newsmagazine 2001;June:30–1. Wagner G, Brown C. Support from a National Defense University, National Security Education Program grant. Veterinary curriculum issues in the new millennium: emerging diseases, food safety, bioterrorism and food security. (DASW01–99-R-0021). Brown C, Hird D, Roth J, Wagner G, Jost C, Memon M. Internationalization of veterinary medicine: educational opportunities. J Vet Med Educ; In press.