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Building Climate Change into Medical Education: A Society of General Internal Medicine Position Statement

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Abstract

Building expertise in climate and planetary health among healthcare professionals cannot come with greater urgency as the threats from climate change become increasingly apparent. Current and future healthcare professionals—particularly internists—will increasingly need to understand the interconnectedness of natural systems and human health to better serve their patients longitudinally. Despite this, few national medical societies and accreditation bodies espouse frameworks for climate change and planetary health–related education at the undergraduate (UME), graduate (GME), and continuing (CME) medical education level. As a community of medical educators with an enduring interest in climate change and planetary health, the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) recognizes the need to explicitly define structured educational opportunities and core competencies in both UME and GME as well as pathways for faculty development. In this position statement, we build from the related SGIM Climate and Health position statement, and review and synthesize existing position statements made by US-based medical societies and accreditation bodies that focus on climate change and planetary health–related medical education, identify gaps using Bloom’s Hierarchy, and provide recommendations on behalf of SGIM regarding the development of climate and planetary health curricula development. Identified gaps include (1) limited systematic approach to climate and planetary health medical education at all levels; (2) minimal emphasis on learner-driven approaches; (3) limited focus on physician and learner well-being; and (4) limited role for health equity and climate justice. Recommendations include a call to relevant accreditation bodies to explicitly include climate change and planetary health as a competency, extend the structural competency framework to climate change and planetary health to build climate justice, proactively include learners in curricular development and teaching, and ensure resources and support to design and implement climate and planetary health–focused education that includes well-being and resiliency.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, 420 E 70th St, New York, NY, 10065, USA

    Arnab K. Ghosh MD, MSc, MA

  2. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 550 1ST Ave, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Alexander Azan MD

  3. Department of Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, 1493 Cambridge Street25 Shattuck Street, CambridgeBoston, MAMA, 0213902115, USA

    Gaurab Basu MD, MPH

  4. Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 W Watertown Plank Rd, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Joanna Bernstein MD, MSE

  5. School of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Leprino Building, 4th Floor, 12401 East 17th Avenue, Aurora, CO, 80045, USA

    Elizabeth Gillespie MD

  6. Department of Medicine, Maine Medical Center, 22 Bramhall St, Portland, ME, 04102, USA

    Lesley B. Gordon MD, MS

  7. Department of Internal Medicine, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, 27101, USA

    Sudarshan Krishnamurthy BS

  8. Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, 111 East 210th St, Bronx, NY, 10467, USA

    Darlene LeFrancois MD

  9. Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, 1120 NW 14th St, Miami, FL, 33136, USA

    Erin N. Marcus MD, MPH

  10. Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Mehul Tejani MD, MPH

  11. Division of General Internal Medicine, Creighton University School of Medicine Omaha, 7500 Mercy Road, Omaha, NE, 68124, USA

    Theresa Townley MD, MPH

  12. Division of General Interval Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, 100 Woodruff Circle, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Eva Rimler MD

  13. Division of Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine, San Francisco VA Medical Center, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94121, USA

    Heather Whelan MD, MSc

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  1. Arnab K. Ghosh MD, MSc, MA
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  2. Alexander Azan MD
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  3. Gaurab Basu MD, MPH
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  4. Joanna Bernstein MD, MSE
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  5. Elizabeth Gillespie MD
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  6. Lesley B. Gordon MD, MS
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  7. Sudarshan Krishnamurthy BS
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  8. Darlene LeFrancois MD
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  9. Erin N. Marcus MD, MPH
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  10. Mehul Tejani MD, MPH
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  13. Heather Whelan MD, MSc
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on behalf of the SGIM Environmental Health Interest Group, Medical Education Committee

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arnab K. Ghosh MD, MSc, MA.

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Ghosh, A.K., Azan, A., Basu, G. et al. Building Climate Change into Medical Education: A Society of General Internal Medicine Position Statement. J GEN INTERN MED (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-024-08690-1

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