Photo by: Pixabay user Tumisu

Harvard Chan C-CHANGE and Biogen to help under-resourced healthcare clinics become more climate-resilient and improve patient health

09/14/2020 | Harvard Chan C-CHANGE/Biogen

  • After achieving carbon neutrality in 2014, Biogen further bolsters its action against climate change with the goal to become fossil fuel free by 2040 and initiates research collaborations with global leaders to help address the effects of fossil fuel-driven air pollution on health.
  • Air pollution, largely caused by fossil fuels, directly impacts climate change and contributes to nearly 9 million deaths annually with the most vulnerable suffering the greatest.
  • Foundational collaborations with MIT, the Harvard T.H. Chan School and World Business Council for Sustainable Development to create actionable strategies to identify necessary and achievable climate targets that improve human health outcomes, advance brain health research and support underserved communities.

As part of this initiative, Harvard Chan C-CHANGE will help under-resourced healthcare clinics become more climate resilient and improve patient health.

“Climate change has a direct impact on health today, and people of color and low-income communities are being hit first and worst by this crisis,” said Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Interim Director of Harvard Chan C-CHANGE. “The climate crisis is an urgent public health issue and one that healthcare systems, particularly community health centers, are unprepared to address, whether in terms of infrastructure, operations or standards of care. Biogen is stepping up to support a first-of-its-kind program to address this gap, with a goal of improving health and care delivery in marginalized communities.”

Read the press release

Toward a Climate-Ready Health Care System: Institutional Motivators and Workforce Engagement

Dr. Caleb Dresser argues that health care systems must reframe incentives and engage their workforce to become climate-resilient.

Read Now

Study: Teaching community organizing principles to health professionals significantly increases their capacity to take climate action

Read Now

Federal investments in climate change and health research are inadequate says Harvard analysis

Critical knowledge gaps hinder an evidence-based response and are perpetuated by scarce federal research funds.

Read Now

Hundreds of Hospitals on Atlantic and Gulf Coasts at Risk of Flooding from Hurricanes

Our study is the first to systematically investigate flooding risk to nearly 700 U.S. hospitals on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from Category 1-4 storms.

Read Now

Communicating Statistics on the Health Effects of Climate Change

Health professionals need to communicate the health and equity implications of climate change effectively to protect health and motivate action.

Read Now

A Pediatrician’s Guide to Climate Change-Informed Primary Care

A practical approach for connecting climate change with health during pediatric well visits.

Read Now

The medical response to climate change

Our Director Dr. Aaron Bernstein lays out five pillars for the medical response to climate change.

Read Now

Adding A Climate Lens To Health Policy In The United States

Our Yerby Fellow Dr. Renee Salas and Interim Director Dr. Aaron Bernstein outline specific recommendations for achieving climate action through health policy and decision making.

Read Now

'We Don't Have To Live This Way': Doctors Call For Climate Action

A sprawling analysis published by The Lancet focuses on public health data from 2019, and finds that heat waves, air pollution and extreme weather increasingly damage human health.

Read Now

Challenges and opportunities to sustainably scale up surgical, obstetric, and anaesthesia care globally

Strategies for the surgical, obstetric, and anaesthesia community to sustainably scale up SOA care to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address health equity and social justice issues.

Read Now

Climate in the Clinic

Clinicians gathered for our Climate Crisis and Clinical Practice Symposium to learn about the impacts of climate change on health care delivery.

Read Now

Clinicians' challenge: 'Bring climate change to the bedside'

Our Climate Crisis and Clinical Practice Symposium kicked off a larger initiative to bring a climate lens to the health care community.

Read Now

Heatwave = heatstroke = ER visit

ER doctor Renee Salas on how doctors are seeing the impacts of climate change on health, and what they can do about it.

Read Now

Doctors meet in Boston to talk climate, health

ER doctor and Harvard Chan C-CHANGE fellow Renee Salas talks about the health impacts of climate change on health.

Read Now

Doc, I'm burning up

While many still think climate change is a problem for future generations, doctors are seeing the real effects of it on their patients now.

Read Now

Doctors highlight climate impacts on hospitals, healthcare

The Climate Crisis and Clinical Practice Symposium kicked off an initiative for the medical community to integrate a climate lens into healthcare delivery.

Read Now

Facing the challenges of climate change at the bedside

Check out the highlights from our ClimateRx2020 symposium—the first to bring together the Boston medical community to discuss how climate change will impact clinical practice.

Read Now

Climate in the clinic

Climate change—and how it affects health—should be front and center for doctors, health care workers, and hospitals, said speakers at a symposium.

Read Now

The climate crisis and clinical practice

Read Now

Harvard and NEJM to tackle the clinical impacts of climate change in Boston, Australia and across the U.S.

Six health systems across the U.S. and one in Australia commit to convening local providers to explore how the climate crisis impacts care delivery.

Read Now