Photo by: Michael Goderre, Boston Childrens Hospital
Bringing climate solutions to the bedside.
When Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico it devastated the island but also caused national shortages of intravenous saline, a backbone of basic medical care when the supply chain was put out of commission.
Hurricanes, wildfires, extreme heat, and other consequences of burning fossil fuels and climate change don’t just threaten our health, they threaten the ability of medical providers to deliver care to all those who need it.
It’s essential that health care providers understand how climate change could impact their clinical practice, be empowered to safeguard their patients’ health, and use their voices to engage the health care community and public to act on climate change.
Harvard Chan C-CHANGE runs Climate MD, a program focused on:
- Working with community health clinics
- Demonstrating climate impacts to health care delivery in medical journals
- Preparing medical leaders on climate and health
- Changing the national media narrative on climate change
- Communicating directly with patients
Working with frontline health clinics
We are working with frontline health clinics to protect patients’ health from climate shocks like heatwaves, hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires. Our programs work with clinic providers, staff, and patients to prevent harm from the climate crisis and improve health equity.
Learn about patient-centered climate resilience and our work with frontline health clinics.
Demonstrating climate impacts to healthcare delivery in medical journals
We reach health care professionals by publishing and amplifying research on patient-centered climate action, leading the yearly analysis tracking the impact of climate change on human health in the U.S. Policy Brief for the Lancet Countdown, and demonstrating the connections between climate change and pediatrics, climate-informed primary care, psychology, emergency medicine, surgery, internal medicine, cancer, pulmonology, infectious diseases, and more.
Preparing medical leaders on climate and health
Our team co-hosts the Health Effects of Climate Change, a massive open online course that has been taken by more than 100,000 students in over 100 countries, Harvard University’s Climate Change and Health Fellows for emergency medicine physicians, and the Climate Health Organizing Fellows program for U.S. health professionals.
We work with medical schools to integrate climate change into curricula using clinical cases and targeted curriculum, outlining the first residency curricula to better prepare doctors for climate change and identifying climate and health initiatives at educational institutions.
Changing the national media narrative on climate change
We serve as the media’s go-to source for climate change and health information, regularly interviewing with top-tier national and health media and hosting workshops and media trainings for organizations on how to effectively communicate about climate and health issues.
Communicating directly with patients
We regularly publish information about how people can stay healthy in a changing climate through serving on the boards of Parents Magazine and Pattrn from The Weather Channel, our collaborations with the Harvard Health Letter, one of the most trusted and widely-read sources of health information in the world, our fact sheets on kids and climate, and our monthly Climate Optimist newsletter.
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.
Study: Teaching community organizing principles to health professionals significantly increases their capacity to take climate action
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.
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.
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.
A Pediatrician’s Guide to Climate Change-Informed Primary Care
A practical approach for connecting climate change with health during pediatric well visits.
The medical response to climate change
Our Director Dr. Aaron Bernstein lays out five pillars for the medical response to climate change.
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.
'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.
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.
The climate crisis is making us sick. Doctors need better training to treat it.
Climate-informed clinicians can keep their patients healthier in a changing climate.
Health as the Central Driver for Action on Climate Change
"There has never been a better time to put health at the center of action on climate change," says Dr. Renee Salas
Climate change impacting health care to the tune of $820B a year
A new report finds the financial impact tops $820 billion in health costs each year, and it could cost all of us more in the future.
As Climate Change Threatens Many Safety Net Clinics, Harvard Researchers Look To Houston
As climate-related illnesses only intensify due to hotter temperatures and more frequent hurricanes, researchers look for ways safety net clinics can better protect the most vulnerable.
Doctors put a price tag on the annual health impacts of climate change. It’s $820 billion.
“Receiving care for climate-sensitive diseases can quickly add up,” says our ClimateMD leader Dr. Renee Salas.
NO TIME TO WASTE
How Harvard Chan School researchers are taking action on climate change and fighting for a healthier, more equitable planet.
Pilot Project Aims to Build Climate Resilience at TX Health Clinics
Three community health centers in Texas are participating in a pilot project with Harvard Chan C-CHANGE to enhance their response to climate change.
Americares helping health clinics hit hard by climate change
Americares and Harvard Chan C-CHANGE are leading a pilot project that could aid health clinics across the country battle the impacts of climate change.
Harvard Chan C-CHANGE Launches Project to Increase Climate Resilience at Community Health Clinics in Four States
Harvard Chan C-CHANGE is working with Americares to identify, support, and prepare clinics to address climate-related impacts on health and healthcare delivery to help buffer risks to the patients they serve and improve health outcomes.
Q&A: Gaurab Basu on climate change, racial justice, and COVID-19
Gaurab Basu, a physician with the Cambridge Health Alliance and a health equity fellow at the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard Chan School, discusses how a legacy of racist policies in the U.S. have left communities of color ill-prepared for climate change and why applying a racial justice framework to…
Renee N. Salas MD, MPH, MS
Renee's work focuses on the intersection of the climate crisis, health, and healthcare delivery.
Caleb Dresser MD, MPH
Caleb is an emergency medicine physician whose research focuses on addressing health needs during and after climate-related disasters.
Gaurab Basu MD, MPH
Gaurab's work focuses on the intersection of climate change, health equity, medical education, and advocacy.
Tess Wiskel MD
Tess' research focuses on the health impacts of climate change, centering on extreme weather events in at-risk patient populations.
Chelsea Heberlein
Chelsea works with frontline health clinics, researchers, and collaborating organizations to put patients at the center of climate resilience.
Anna Miller MPH
Anna translates science into action by promoting awareness of the health impacts of climate change.
Sweta Waghela
Sweta works with frontline health clinics to prevent foreseeable harms from the climate crisis.
