For healthcare students and career changers interested in the field of medical research, the future of the industry is becoming increasingly shaped by interdisciplinary approaches to today’s most challenging medical puzzles. This is great news for students with a wide range of experiences. Being a well-rounded and creative problem-solver is a highly valued aspect of research and examples of the success of an interdisciplinary approach can be found across many traditional fields.
For example, in 2012, the emergence of a Sars-like novel corona virus had scientists stumped. An interdisciplinary approach helped develop a new treatment for the potentially deadly illness. In April 2013 the Center for Disease Control (CDC) re-named the virus “MERS” or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. While many factors about MERS remain unknown at this time, the information gathered so far has come from a variety of different sources.
In today’s global community where routine travel and international commerce is more common, interdisciplinary cooperation is important for understanding emerging diseases. From zoologists and veterinarians looking at data to document an animal host or point of origin to the clinicians, nurse practitioners and other medical staff such as doctors and nurses, everyone who works with MERS has a unique perspective and can contribute to a better overall understanding of the virus.
People who have died in other countries outside the Middle East had recently traveled to the Middle East and it is believed that is where they contracted the illness. At first, doctors did not think that it spread from person to person, but now it is confirmed that in at least one case, a person with acute symptoms passed it along to close family members. Healthcare workers were also documented victims in more current cases but it is unclear if the transmission was from a patient or just a factor of working in the same healthcare facility that was linked to the illness.
While new cases of MERS are still emerging, they are limited primarily to three cluster regions in Saudi Arabia. The CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) have not issued any travel restrictions, just a common-sense warning to people traveling to regions most affected. People returning from travels to the region are advised to monitor their respiratory health closely for up to three weeks upon returning. To date there have been no confirmed cases in the United States, however, viruses like MERS have emerged in the past and will continue to appear in the future.
With the proper training and experience, understanding how emerging diseases are researched and managed can help mitigate professional reservations. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the use of social media to make information more immediately available and the cooperation of healthcare professionals across the globe, when an emergent healthcare challenge arises, the response can be more comprehensive and effective than ever before.
