/Pcess609, stock.adobe.com
Bonn – Taking into account increasingly pressing environmental problems, university medicine wants to focus more attention on treating the consequences of climate change on human health. Medical faculties also consider that greater attention should be paid to the impact on the content of training and continuing education of young doctors.
“Teaching and research will have to focus more on how climate change takes its toll on the human body and how morbidity and mortality, as well as the epidemiology of diseases, shift and change”, stated the President of the Association of Medical Faculties (MFT), Matthias Frosch, at this year’s 85th Ordinary Faculty of Medicine Day (oMFT) in Bonn.
Frosch is convinced that the topic of prevention, which is currently becoming increasingly important for many diseases, will also become increasingly important in the treatment of heat-related health damage. “One of our tasks in university medicine is to anchor this topic in our studies,” says Frosch. Not all effects of climate change can be avoided. This makes it even more important to prepare all healthcare professionals for this challenge. Given that many medical schools are currently driven by the desire and desire to equip future healthcare professionals with the specific knowledge and action skills needed that can help address the interaction between climate change and human health, the 85th OMFT in Bonn he discussed the topic in a focal panel.
Claudia Hornberg, Chair of the Advisory Board on Environmental Issues (SRU). Environmental and climate-related diseases are becoming increasingly common – also in Western Europe, said the Bielefeld University professor and dean of the local medical faculty.
As a direct consequence of climate change, the increased occurrence of extreme weather events will mean more patients will need to be treated for heat stress, dehydration, injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, Hornberg said. But indirect effects, such as supply deficits or social unrest, should not be underestimated either. In combination with increased global tourism activities, climate change is also promoting the spread of vector-based infectious diseases.
“Almost every medical discipline has to do with climate change,” Hornberg explained. “That’s why we need to continue to focus on the issue of climate protection and discuss climate adaptation of the healthcare system.” She cited air pollution as another example: air pollution with pollutants such as fine dust, nitrogen dioxide or ozone is a problem. also linked to climate change. High concentrations of ozone could, for example, increase stress on people with pre-existing respiratory illnesses, global warming and increased COtwoconcentrations led to a prolonged pollen season and the appearance of new species, which is particularly relevant in allergy.
Train medical staff
Medical staff must be trained from the beginning, Hornung said. This is already happening at several congresses and meetings. “The theme is present there. That’s right.” In Hornberg’s opinion, even more interdisciplinary approaches should be promoted, including at universities. “Climate protection is health protection”, quoted Hornberg, president of the German Medical Association (BAK), Klaus Reinhardt. “Until now, the topic of climate has only been a marginal issue in medical training and higher education,” she lamented. “There needs to be more in teaching.” The first good approaches in this sense are already visible, for example, at the universities of Cologne, Augsburg and Bielefeld.
Eva-Maria Schwienhorst-Stich, head of the Climate and Planetary Health working group at the University of Würzburg, was optimistic: The topic is currently receiving more and more attention in medical education, she reported. In 2021, a cross-topic and specialized catalog “Planetary and Global Health” was created as part of the National Catalog of Competency-Based Learning Objectives (NKLM). This is not yet present in all curricula, but there are already good concrete approaches in this regard in many universities.
For example, its teaching staff in Würzburg already have good experience in integrating the topic into the longitudinal curriculum, says Schwienhorst-Stich. “It doesn’t take a lot of resources to establish the theme,” she explained. But a coordinated process is needed. It is important to look committedly at each subject and see where the theme can be incorporated.
These activities are popular among students: “The topic of climate and health has been increasingly discussed among us in recent years,” confirmed Shaleen Paschke, Federal Coordinator for Public Health at the Federal Representation of Medical Students in Germany (bvmd). The medical student recalled that students had already written a position paper on the topic of One Health years ago and called for a sustainable and comprehensive integration of the topic into medical training. “Now it’s important to really bring these approaches together in curricula.”
You don’t want teaching to be turned inside out, Paschke said. “Much of the content is already contained in some form in the curricula.” However, the emphasis would have to be re-emphasized in the context of climate change. “As medical education is now becoming more oriented towards prevention content, there is now good momentum,” she said. Your generation must deal with the consequences of climate change. But many of the students are unsure about their future roles as doctors in the field of climate change and health. “That’s what we want to learn.”
Medical education once again occupied a lot of space at this year’s annual meeting of faculty representatives. The focus in Bonn was particularly on medical didactics: on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Master in Medical Education, the professionalization of medical education now achieved was honored.
Another theme of the 85th OMFT in Bonn was China’s innovative strength and the opportunities and risks for German and European university medicine resulting from scientific collaborations with Chinese partners. Participants were unanimous in the opinion that these should be carefully considered in institutions on a case-by-case basis. A state clearinghouse was rejected. © ER/aerzteblatt.de