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Building a Climate Curriculum for your Medical School

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Elizabeth Cerceo, MD, FACP, FHM May 18, 2024

Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action

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We cannot have healthy people on a sick planet.

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Potential Arguments for Climate Health Integration

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  • Environmental justice
  • Advocacy
  • Research
  • Student demands
  • “Writing on the wall”
  • Philanthropic/funding opportunities
  • Peer pressure

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Patz, JA et al. Climate change and global health: Quantifying a growing ethical crisis. EcoHealth 2007.

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Climate change and the legacy of structural racism

  • Mapping temperature, land surface, health indicators, & historical redlining in 108 US cities
  • 94% of formerly redlined areas were hotter than surrounding neighborhoods
  • Temp up to 7⁰C hotter; nationally,

2.6⁰C hotter

  • ↑ proportion EMS calls & hospital visits for heat-related illness on extremely hot days

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Hoffman, Shandas, Pendleton. THe effects of urban housing policies on resident

exposure to intra-urban heat: a study of 108 US urban areas. Climate 2020.

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Equity and Urgency

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“Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale.”

  • WHO Commission on the SDH

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“The science is unequivocal; a global increase of 1.5⁰C above the preindustrial average and continued loss of biodiversity risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.”

  • Editorial published by 200+ medical journals 2021

Drought in India

Hurricane Katrina

Wildfires in Greece

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Role in Medical Schools

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  • 2016 Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health brings together >70 major medical societies representing over 700,000 physicians and health professionals with a shared mission: to make climate change about health.
    • AMA, ACP, ACEP, AAP, Physicians for Social Responsibility, etc
  • AAMC foregoing in-person recruitment.
  • A 2018 commissioned report of ACGME identified “climate-change

medicine” as an emerging internal medicine subspecialty by 2035.

  • June 2019 policy resolution from AMA supports “climate change education across the medical education continuum.”
  • August 2019 NEJM launched online “Climate Crisis and Health”

hub.

  • Board integration (AAP)
  • Planetary health in CanMeds 2025
  • ACGME Common Program Requirements

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  • July 2019 UN declared a “climate emergency,” and in partnership with over 7000 institutions across 6 continents, committed to strengthening climate change education.

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U.S. Call to Action on Climate, Health, and Equity: A Policy Action Agenda. https://climatehealthaction.org/cta/climate-health-equity-policy

The Climate Emergency (unep.org)

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Medical Schools with Environmental Health Curricula

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Timeline

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  • Phase I Committee presentation
  • Phase II Committee presentation
  • Curriculum Committee presentation
  • Meeting with Dean
    • Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education

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Research projects

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  • Systematic reviews
  • Clinical survey studies
    • Pediatric
    • Adult inpatient
  • Medical education

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Global Consortium

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Director of Climate Health

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  • As of January 2024
  • Demonstrates commitment of CMSRU and Dean
  • Supports integration of content in individual courses

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Medical Education Program Objectives

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  • Core group volunteered
  • Met 6 times
  • Refined MEPOs
  • Developed 10 new Learning Objectives
  • Worked with OME for keywords

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Scholarly Concentrations

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  • Developed April 2023
    • Involved Global Health, Racism in Medicine, interested faculty
  • Additional 120 hours of education
  • First enrolled 2 students 2023-2024
  • Now set to enroll 4 students annually

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Planetary Health Report Card

Subtitle

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Faculty Development

  • Phase I Committee presentation
  • Phase II Committee presentation
  • Curriculum Committee presentation
  • Plan for Medical Education Grand Rounds
  • Starting evening faculty development sessions in Fall 2024

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Residency Development

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  • IM climate health series
  • Intern orientation session
  • Grand Rounds

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https://rowanmed.libguides.com/c.php?g=1361785&p=10057530 &preview=320b680a62dd25037fbd5939c82c1b3e

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Planetary Health Report Card

Subtitle

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Climate Health MEPOs

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Climate Health MEPOs

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Climate Health MEPOs

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Climate Health MEPOs

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Climate Health MEPOs

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Additional parallel processes

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  • Global Health Scholarly Concentration
  • Healthcare sustainability work
  • Racism in Medicine
  • Community Service
    • AAMC Spencer Forman Award 2019

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Future work

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  • Present to Chiefs and Chairs (Health system side)
  • M3 orientation
  • Interdisciplinary sessions
  • Disaster medicine (military medicine)
  • Continue publishing research and building collaborations
  • Applying for grants
  • Certificate in Climate Health

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