Explain the ways by which climate change impacts human health through environmental exposure pathways including natural disasters/extreme weather, changes in water quality and quantity, food insecurity, heat stress, air pollution and vector borne infections.
Describe the impact of climate change, air pollution, and ecological degradation on health outcomes including cardiovascular, respiratory, reproductive, neurologic, immunologic, psychiatric, oncologic and infectious disease processes.
Identify risks for disease emergence, especially zoonoses, that arise from ecological degradation in the form of deforestation, land use changes, pollution and biodiversity loss.
Demonstrate capacity to take a clinical history of environmental exposure risks related to occupation, residence, local environmental hazards and indoor pollutants.
Develop clinical prevention and treatment plans for extreme heat and air pollution exposure based upon identification of at-risk patients, including patients with underlying morbidities and inequitable social determinants of health.
Anticipate and establish plans to address excess burdens of psychiatric disease that arise from climate-change-influenced extreme weather events such as heat waves, wildfires, more severe hurricanes and flooding.
It will additionally describe the impacts of climate changes on the health care delivery system itself and how health care professionals can make change to address this public health threat. The course will be organized to touch upon climate impacts on a diversity of health conditions and disease processes and will be valuable to health care providers of all fields.
This accredited course is offered by Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. This course is targeted to Specialty Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners and Primary Care Physicians. Contact ceprograms@hms.harvard.edu with questions.
