A new master's program in conservation medicine introduced by Tufts' Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is now accepting applications.
Conservation medicine is an emerging interdisciplinary field that studies health issues related to the interaction between the environment, animals and humans. The Cummings master's program, which lasts one year and does not include a thesis, will begin offering classes in Fall 2011. Applications for the program are due on April 1 of next year.
"The new emerging pandemic threats are largely coming from newfound and unusual associations between people and animals," Gretchen Kaufman, director of Tufts' Center for Conservation Medicine (Tufts CCM) and an assistant professor at Cummings, said.
"New diseases have emerged in humans that wouldn't have otherwise, diseases like AIDS or ebola," she said.
Kaufman said the master's program, based out of the Tufts CCM, is the first of its kind in the country.
"There are a few graduate programs in Europe, but none are as diverse as this one," Kaufman said.
The master's program marks "the first time that a diverse group of people got together to talk about this interdisciplinary field and tried to define the term of conservation medicine," Kaufman said. "The program is meant to add on to an individual person's expertise, and we are training to make them more competitive and suited for working in conservation medicine."
The interdisciplinary program incorporates faculty members from diverse backgrounds and schools.
Cummings Research Assistant Professor Allen Rutberg said health decisions frequently require input from a variety of backgrounds.
"This is not just a job for physicians, veterinarians or public health people," Rutberg said. "Ecological issues require complex policy issues that need policy and government mechanisms to cope with these complicated health issues."
"The problems in dealing with health have transcended any one discipline," Rutberg said.
Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor and Action Chair Stephen Levine helped design a course for the program titled Engineering Solutions, which will combine elements of ecology and public health.
Levine said communication across disciplines is often difficult, but he expects the program to ease the process.
"People coming in with different expertise speak different languages," Levine said. "This program intended to bring people in different areas with different kinds of background and experience and essentially help them develop a common vocabulary."
The program is funded by grants from The Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation for Animal Welfare.
Rutberg is excited to engage students in a new approach to health issues.
"We're very excited bringing all these different people to campus, how that will drive research [and] get people thinking on some new angles and approaches to these problems," he said.
