The One Health Breakthrough Partnership (OHBP) has been at the forefront of addressing the issue of pharmaceuticals in the environment through a multidisciplinary approach that involves agencies such as NHS Highland, Scottish Water, Scotland’s Centre of Expertise for Water, and SEPA. This innovative approach has led to several recognitions, including awards from the Scottish Environment Business Awards (VIBES), British Medical Journal, and Interface 2022. However, in order to retain its leading position, the OHBP has embarked on a learning journey aimed at exploring new collaborations and activities to enhance its impact.
The learning journey was hosted by the University of Uppsala and involved engaging with One Health Sweden led by the Swedish University of Agricultural near Uppsala, the Region Stockholm (Stockholm Council), and LIF (the Swedish Association of Pharmaceutical Industry). The main objectives were to promote awareness of OHBP and Scottish OneHealth interests, engage with MRC project partners, hear about developments in the Stockholm Wise List, and examine the OneHealth Sweden model and evaluate its relevance to the working relationship between OHBP members.
Sweden has been at the forefront of addressing the issue of pharmaceuticals in the environment through a collaborative One Health approach by bringing together stakeholders from different sectors to address environmental challenges. Through this approach, Sweden has been able to develop innovative solutions to address environmental challenges while improving human, environmental and animal health. One of the main outputs from this approach is the Stockholm Wise List – an eco-directed formulary including environmental information of pharmaceuticals. This includes development of the knowledge support tool – Janusinfo – a database of pharmaceutical environmental data.
The learning journey to Sweden provided an opportunity for OHBP to explore the application of the Swedish One Health model to the Scottish context, and how to build on the Stockholm Wise List model in the UKRI MRC project. OHBP members Dr Lydia Niemi, Prof. Sharon Pfleger, and Prof. Stuart Gibb engaged with staff at Region Stockholm who have developed and maintained the eco-directed Stockholm Wise List formulary, and Bengt Mattson from LIF (the Swedish Association of Pharmaceutical Industry) responsible for the pharmaceutical industry’s environmental information database FASS.se. OHBP members were hosted by Uppsala University staff involved in the UKRI MRC project, and engaged with staff responsible for restructuring knowledge management in the healthcare system of Stockholm and Gotland. This engagement provided OHBP with insights on how to adapt the One Health model and Wise List to the Scottish context. It is important for OHBP to continue exploring new collaborations and activities to retain its leading position in Scotland, across the UK, and internationally.
Read more about the collaborative learning journey.
