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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Acad Med. 2018 Dec;93(12):1774–1777. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002368

Table 1.

Practical Tips for Advancing a Climate Change and Health Curriculum in Medical Schools

Area of curriculum development Examples
Preclinical physical diagnosis • Incorporate patient’s environmental history.
Preclinical sciences • Incorporate relevant climate change content into cardiopulmonary, microbiology, and other courses, and
• integrate environmental vulnerabilities into social determinants of health curriculum.
Clerkships (pediatrics, family medicine, emergency medicine, infectious disease) • Work with clerkship directors to include climate change content, communication skills, and patient education approaches.
Curricular enhancement • Use available published objectives,28,29
• offer electives,
• create practicum and research opportunities,
• create environmental health fellowships with a concentration on health effects of climate change, and
• use Web sites presenting postcurricular models of educational resources such as MedEdPORTAL.
Advocacy • Liaise with affiliated hospital to explore green energy and related initiatives,
• identify and liaise with social justice clubs and tracks,
• create and mobilize student groups, and
• use advocacy talking point resources, such as EcoAmerica’s Climate for Health talking points.30
Faculty development • Offer training to junior faculty,
• identify/create continuing medical education for faculty, and
• work with chair/administrators to create engagement incentives for faculty.
Patient/public communication • Discuss communication techniques with learners using available models, and
• engage learners to design and implement research projects aimed at developing best practices at the point of care and when communicating with other stakeholders.
National and international learning communities • Liaise with, and provide similar opportunities for trainees to connect with groups that transcend traditional professional and geographic silos, such as Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education 31 and the U.K. Center for Sustainable Healthcare Network on Sustainable Healthcare Education.32