Crowd sourcing to bridge the gap between science and public health

Abstract

A One Health approach has been promoted for twenty years to strengthen control and prevention of zoonotic diseases. But barriers remain particularly limiting effective intersectoral cooperation between science and public health. Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed, problem-solving, and production model, which generally includes four elements: 1) An institution or an individual has a task or question, 2) a community (crowd) solves the task on a voluntary basis, 3) an online-platform facilitates the interaction of both sides, and 4) the result is an added value for the questioner as well as the crowd. We propose a crowdsourcing approach where individual scientists and public and veterinary health representatives can act both as questioners or crowd members. The combination of an online exchange forum, an integrated search database and targeted training making use of innovative media has the potential to break down historical barriers limiting intersectoral cooperation. This approach can encourage information exchange, improve translation of research into policy and practice and lead to more targeted science and advanced training.