Climate Medicine: A Clinical Training Program for Healthcare Educators

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Description: 

Climate change is a defining threat to global health, reshaping the determinants of health and widening existing inequities, while extreme heat, air pollution, ecosystem disruption, and extreme weather events increase morbidity and mortality across populations. This module introduces the foundational science of climate change, the mechanisms linking climate exposures to health outcomes, and the role of health systems and health professionals in prevention, risk reduction, and clinical response. Participants will examine major global trends, pathways of exposure, and the growing evidence that health professionals are essential for advancing climate mitigation, adaptation, resilience, and health equity. By establishing a shared vocabulary and conceptual framework, this session prepares clinicians to understand climate change as both a medical and systems-level challenge that demands integrated action across health practice and policy.

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Description: Climate change is reshaping healthcare delivery by disrupting critical infrastructure, supply chains, and clinical operations, while simultaneously driving greater demand for care during extreme events and chronic climate stressors. Health systems now face the dual imperative of reducing their environmental footprint and strengthening the capacity of facilities and communities to withstand climate-related shocks. This module introduces the core principles and practical frameworks of climate adaptation and system resilience, examining how climate hazards compromise facility functionality, access to care, workforce stability, and patient outcomes. Participants will learn how to identify and assess health system vulnerabilities, integrate early-warning systems and operational preparedness into routine care, and apply evidence-based strategies that maintain continuity of essential services across a range of clinical and community settings. Drawing on global guidance that emphasizes both adaptation and mitigation as necessary components of resilient health systems, the session highlights the role of health professionals in leading collaboration, preparedness, and community engagement to protect health in a rapidly changing climate.

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Description: The global healthcare sector makes up a total of approximately 4.5% of all global carbon emissions, heralding significant opportunities for mitigation. Climate action driven by healthcare systems is paramount to protecting community health now and in the future. In 2017, the World Bank in collaboration with Health Care Without Harm introduced the “Climate-Smart Healthcare'' approach, bridging the gap between adaptation, resilience, and mitigation in the healthcare sector and highlighting the strategic advantage of jointly implementing mitigation and resiliency efforts in health systems. Understanding the different facets of the healthcare sector's climate footprint and subsequent evidence-based pathways for emission mitigation is key to mobilizing a Climate-Smart Healthcare approach in any system.

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Description: Climate change reshapes the core functions of public health—surveillance, prevention, health promotion, emergency preparedness, environmental health, and community engagement. This module examines how climate change alters population-level health risks, drives inequities, disrupts public health infrastructure, and increases demand for coordinated intersectoral action. Participants will learn how public health tools—including early-warning systems, population surveillance, geospatial analysis, vulnerability assessment, citizen science, and environmental monitoring—are leveraged to identify at-risk populations and guide prevention and response. The session emphasizes how climate change demands innovative population-level interventions, integration with community engagement strategies, and protection of health equity and environmental justice. Participants will explore how clinicians and educators can collaborate with public health systems to reduce risk, build resilience, and prepare communities for climate-related health threats.

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Description: This module explores the impact of climate change on pharmacology and is intended for both clinicians and pharmacists. Rising temperatures, humidity, and extreme weather can affect medication stability, efficacy, and how drugs affect the individual patient and the natural environment into which pharmaceuticals are released. For example, elderly patients on chronic medications like diuretics are at increased risk of dehydration during heatwaves, while psychotropic drugs can impair thermoregulation, raising the risk of heat-related illness. Clinicians need to account for these factors when prescribing, and pharmacists should counsel patients on proper storage, disposal and environment- and climate-specific risks. This module provides practical strategies to adapt prescribing practices and ensure safe, effective treatment in a changing climate.

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Description: Primary care is the backbone of climate-informed care. This module focuses on how climate change alters patterns of common conditions seen in primary care (e.g., heat-related illness, respiratory disease, mental health exacerbations, vector-borne disease) and how primary care teams can integrate climate risk assessment into routine visits. Participants will explore evidence-based approaches to climate-sensitive screening, counseling, and chronic disease management, as well as practice-level strategies for decarbonizing ambulatory care and advocating for community-level resilience.

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Description: Children and older adults are among the populations most vulnerable to climate-related health harms. This module synthesizes current evidence on how heat, air pollution, extreme weather, food and water insecurity, and vector-borne disease affect pediatric and geriatric outcomes. Participants will examine case studies of climate-sensitive presentations and will identify opportunities for decarbonization (e.g., vaccine delivery, chronic care models, long-term care facilities) and advocacy for age-friendly, climate-resilient systems.

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Description: This module reviews the growing evidence on climate-related risks to reproductive health and gender-specific outcomes, including pregnancy complications, fertility, menstrual disorders, and gender-based violence in the context of disasters and displacement. Participants will explore how to integrate climate risk into reproductive counseling, prenatal care, and family planning, and how OB/Gyn and gender-health clinicians can lead decarbonization and advocacy efforts focused on reproductive justice and climate justice.

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Description: Cardiovascular and respiratory diseases are among the most sensitive to climate-related exposures, from heat and air pollution to wildfire smoke and storms. This module synthesizes the latest evidence on how climate change modifies risk for acute coronary syndromes, arrhythmias, heart failure, asthma, COPD, and critical illness. Faculty will examine ICU-level impacts and identify major decarbonization levers in cardiopulmonary and critical care (e.g., inhaler choice, anesthesia, ICU energy use) along with specialty-specific advocacy opportunities.

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Description: Emergency departments, trauma teams, and surgical services are on the frontlines of climate-related disasters, surges, and infrastructure failures. This module will examine trends in ED and trauma presentations during heat waves, storms, floods, and wildfire events, as well as how climate change alters the burden of surgically managed disease. Faculty will explore operational and clinical adaptations for climate-related surges, opportunities to decarbonize emergency and surgical care, and advocacy roles in hospital emergency preparedness and regional disaster planning.

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Description: This session focuses on infectious diseases most affected by climate change, including vector-, water-, soil-, and zoonotic infections. Faculty will review the latest evidence on shifting geographic ranges, seasonality, and outbreak risks and will examine climate-sensitive stewardship challenges (e.g., antibiotic use during disasters). The session will also address decarbonization in infectious diseases (e.g., diagnostics, antimicrobial stewardship) and advocacy for surveillance, early warning systems, and One Health approaches.

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Description: Neurologic and mental health outcomes are strongly influenced by climate change through heat, air pollution, disasters, food and water insecurity, and forced migration. This module synthesizes current evidence on climate-related risks for stroke, neurodegenerative disease, migraine, developmental disorders, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and substance use. Faculty will consider disability and mobility in the context of extreme events, and explore low-carbon models of neurological and mental health care, as well as advocacy for climate-sensitive mental health services.
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Description: Renal and gastrointestinal systems are highly sensitive to heat, dehydration, food and water insecurity, and toxin exposures. This module reviews the evidence on climate-related acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, electrolyte disorders, and climate-sensitive GI conditions (e.g., diarrheal disease, liver disease, undernutrition). Faculty will also discuss high-carbon aspects of nephrology and GI care (e.g., dialysis, endoscopy) and explore mitigation and advocacy strategies.

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Description: Anesthesia and surgery are among the most resource- and carbon-intensive areas of healthcare. This module focuses on the dual responsibility of peri-operative teams: safeguarding patients in a changing climate (e.g., heat-vulnerable surgical patients, disaster-related surgical needs) and driving decarbonization of the operating room. Faculty will examine evidence on climate-sensitive peri-operative risk, sustainable anesthesia and surgical practices, and advocacy for institutional change.

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Description: Climate change affects ocular and skin health through air pollution, heat, vector-borne and infectious diseases, allergens, and occupational exposures. This module reviews the evidence for climate-related trends in eye and skin disease (e.g., cataracts, pterygium, allergic eye disease, skin cancers, inflammatory dermatoses, infectious skin diseases), and highlights the role of dermatologists and ophthalmologists in decarbonization and advocacy—especially around UV protection, occupational health, and climate-sensitive allergens and exposures.

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Description: This capstone session equips healthcare educators with practical, evidence-informed pedagogic strategies to integrate climate and health content into undergraduate, postgraduate, and continuing medical education. Moving beyond content delivery, the module focuses on how to teach climate medicine effectively—embedding climate concepts into existing curricula, clinical teaching, assessment, and faculty development without overburdening already dense programs. Participants will explore adult learning principles, competency-based education, case-based and experiential learning, and approaches to curriculum integration that align with accreditation standards and specialty competencies. The session emphasizes climate education as a longitudinal, clinically relevant thread rather than a standalone topic, and highlights strategies for managing resistance, fostering psychological safety, and supporting learners facing climate distress.