Blog post: Climate change curriculum important for UMass Chan grads, future healthcare professionals
By Alex-Maree Roberts
At UMass Chan Medical School, there are ongoing efforts to integrate climate change studies into the Vista curriculum, which already incorporates a health system science pillar, biomedical and clinical science pillars, and health equity, diversity and inclusion, population and community health, and patient and provider wellness to students’ studies.
The proposed climate change learning objectives include defining climate change and its health impacts; understanding mitigation and adaptation strategies as they relate to climate change; applying communication techniques and strategies to inform others about science and health issues related to climate change; and acquiring skills to take a comprehensive and effective environmental history.
The Global Consortium on Climate Health and Education (GCCHE) is an international group of over 400 health professionals committed to advancing climate and health education. Their mission is to “ensure that all the health professionals throughout the world possess the knowledge and skills to identify, prevent, reduce, and respond to the health impacts of climate change, thereby reducing health disparities and improving human health and well-being.” In service of this mission, they released the fourth iteration of their “Core Concepts for Health Professionals” framework in 2025.
The Core Concepts framework aims to establish a “gold standard” for climate-health knowledge and skills for health professionals; facilitate global harmonization of mitigation, adaptation, and resilience efforts; guide climate health curricular development for health professional training institutions; and support multidisciplinary capacity building. The five addressed domains are knowledge and analytic skills; communication and collaboration; policy, advocacy and professional practice; public health practice; and clinical practice. The framework situates learning objectives, (e.g. Assess the socioeconomic dimensions driving climate change- including consumption patterns and economic growth- and the potential of alternative models to mitigate environmental impacts) alongside the conceptual context that they address (e.g. Socioeconomic factors, including population dynamics, economic development patterns, and technological choices, drive climate change while simultaneously influencing societal capacity to implement effective mitigation and adaptation strategies.) The framework is comprehensive enough to allow interested parties to select and integrate the most relevant and practical components into their own educational efforts.
There is some overlap with the GCCHE’s domains, which is promising for UMass Chan graduates’ ability to respond to the health-related consequences of climate change.
As climate change advances, it will become increasingly important for healthcare professionals to recognize and respond to its impact on health. Extreme weather events pose a major risk to power infrastructure, water supply systems, and transportation infrastructure. This affects the delivery of health care services while creating medical emergencies that need to be addressed. Healthcare systems have a responsibility to reduce their contributions to climate change while dealing with its consequences.