A new Climate and Health Special Interest Group (CH-SIG) has launched to initially establish methods for incorporating climate and health into Public Health / General Preventive Medicine (PH/GPM) residency training. There will also be an opportunity to work together on advocacy and policy.
Climate change and environmental health are an urgent focus for all public health professionals and physicians. Climate effects on health are direct (e.g., extreme heat) and indirect (e.g., vector range extensions). Increasing numbers of people are presenting for care with climate-related problems: extreme heat, injury from flooding and wind, vector-borne illness, respiratory distress from airborne particulates, and mental health issues related to real and expected illness.
Training in climate and health for medical professionals is essential. The three medical fields within Preventive Medicine, PH/GPM, Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) and Aerospace Medicine (AM), train residents in both individual preventive care and population-based prevention. Many physicians in these specialties work in health departments and federal Health and Human Services programs. Because climate change influences all these areas, preventive medicine professionals can contribute to the mitigation of and response to climate-related health problems, at the individual, local, institutional and nationwide levels.
With those concerns and intentions in mind, a committee was established in 2024 with interested faculty from PH/PGM, OEM, and academic public health. During 2024, the committee developed a list of key topics in climate and health, in three categories: foundational knowledge; community or population wide prevention, mitigation and adaptation; and primary, secondary and tertiary prevention for individuals. A voluntary milestone was developed to measure progress in this area for residents, faculty and programs.
The new CH-SIG grew from that committee, and the first CH-SIG meeting was held on May 6, at PM2025. Twenty-two meeting attendees joined the session for a lively, enthusiastic exchange of ideas on advocacy, ideas for practicum rotations, hospital and medical facility sustainability, One Health and the recommendation that we partner with residencies in other specialties to develop climate and health curricula (e.g., Internal Medicine, Pediatrics).
The CH-SIG’s new community on ACPM Pulse will host discussions, references, slide sets, useful web sites and other resources. The group is open to all ACPM members. Just email membership@acpm.org to be added to the roster. The CH-SIG will be holding its second meeting in June over Zoom to discuss objectives for the year and tasks to be accomplished, and we hope you’ll be there! Join us on ACPM Pulse or watch ACPM News for more information.
Pauline Thomas, MD, FACPM
Lead, ACPM Climate and Health Special Interest Group