Planetary Health Alliance, Clinicians Initiative

Clinicians for Planetary Health

As physicians, nurses, and other clinicians are at the frontlines of protecting our health, they have a unique capacity to understand and communicate the shifting landscape of planetary health challenges and the strategies that individuals can take to safeguard their health and that of the environment. The Clinicians for Planetary Health initiative is a global effort to galvanize clinicians and their patients around planetary health through lifestyle modifications and activism. Join us.

Resources:
- The Lancet publishes a global call-to-action, supported by 29 medical associations and healthcare organizations around the world, to increase awareness planetary health and mobilize clinical communities to get engaged through joining the global Clinicians for Planetary Health initiative.
- The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) issues a declaration to its networks of 500,000 family doctors around the world that discusses the health impacts of human-caused environmental change and various channels of action. The declaration for all clinicians can be viewed here.

Get Involved:

- Join Clinicians for Planetary Health by signing on to the email list, through which we'll issue updates and opportunities for engagement.
- Have your organization formally join Clinicians for Planetary Health as a partner, indicating its commitment to planetary health and advancing solutions. Email erikaveidis@g.harvard.edu.
- Connect and collaborate directly with others around the world working to advance planetary health in clinical settings and beyond through joining the Clinicians for Planetary Health Online Community. For more information on how to create your free account, visit here.

Partner Organizations:
The Clinicians for Planetary Health initiative is supported by a global consortium of partner organizations.

The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH) works with key partners to engage healthcare professionals, patients and the wider community in understanding the connections between health and environment, and to reduce healthcare’s resource footprint. Our range of programmes seeks to inspire healthcare professionals to develop sustainable models of care. We provide tools and resources to empower and enable individuals and groups to make their own changes and we work with them to transform practice.

Contact:
info@sustainablehealthcare.org.uk

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment seeks to better understand how the environment affects human health in order to be a resource to others. CAPE educates its members, other physicians and health professionals, the public, and policy-makers about environmental health issues; takes actions that will contribute to the protection and promotion of human health by addressing issues of environmental degradation; and collaborates with other organizations and physicians around the world to advocate for healthier environments and ecosystems.

Contact:
info@cape.ca

Climate for Health is a U.S. initiative working with a cadre of partners to empower health leaders and organizations to mitigate their climate impacts and advocate for climate solutions. Founded by ecoAmerica and led by a diverse network of health leaders, Climate for Health offers a variety of tools and resources to build visible climate leadership within the health sector.

Contact:
rebecca@ecoamerica.org

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine is the medical professional association for physicians, allied health professionals and healthcare executives who are dedicated to treating root causes of disease, as opposed to solely managing symptoms with ever-increasing quantities of pills and procedures.

Contact:
info@lifestylemedicine.org

World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) Working Party on the Environment: Our vision is healthy people, healthy communities and healthy ecosystems on a healthy planet.

Contact:
alan.abelsohn@utoronto.ca - Dr Alan (Provost)
enriquefbarros@gmail.com - Dr Enrique (Chair)
dr.twarby@icloud.com - Tammra Warby (PHA liaison)
alice.mcgushin@gmail.com - Alice McGushin (Chair Elect)

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is the professional membership body for GPs (Family Physicians) in the UK. Our purpose is to encourage, foster and maintain the highest possible standards in general medical practice. We have 53,000 members across the world that includes 70% of the GPs working in the UK.

The RCGP is a founder member of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change

The RCGP has developed its Green Impact for Health toolkit. This helps each general practice improve its sustainability and environmental impact

Contact:
tk@elpmek.demon.co.uk - Terry Kemple

The Irish Doctors for Environment (IDE) is a collective group of medical professionals in Ireland who are focused on promoting, improving and sustaining the health of humans by striving to improve the health of the environment.

Contact: irishdocsenv@gmail.com

The American Public Health Association (APHA) champions the health of all people and all communities, strengthens the public health profession and brings together members from all fields of public health. With a long-standing commitment to climate as a health issue, APHA is working to address climate change by applying a public health and health equity lens to help shape climate policy, engagement and action to better address the needs of vulnerable populations.

Contact: climatechange@apha.org

The WFPHA’s mission is to promote and protect global public health. It does this throughout the world by supporting the establishment and organizational development of public health associations and societies of public health, through facilitating and supporting the exchange of information, knowledge and the transfer of skills and resources, and through promoting and undertaking advocacy for public policies, programs and practices that will result in a healthy and productive world.

Contact: Marta.Lomazzi@unige.ch

The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) is a rapidly growing Washington, DC based organization of over 175 academic institutions and other organizations from around the world engaged in addressing global health challenges. CUGH supports academic institutions and partners to improve the wellbeing of people and the planet through education, research, service, and advocacy.

Contact: executivedirector@cugh.org

The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) is the only national nursing organization focused solely on the intersection of health and the environment. The mission of the Alliance is to promote healthy people and healthy environments by educating and leading the nursing profession, advancing research, incorporating evidence-based practice, and influencing policy.

Contact: cara@enviRN.org

The Canadian Medical Association is the representative organization for the physicians of Canada. As part of its work in the area of health and the environment, it develops policy at the national and international levels, works to educate its members on the health impacts of climate change and advocates for legislative and policy changes intended to lessen this impact.

Contact: Jeff.Blackmer@cma.ca

We are Minnesota physicians, nurses and allied health care providers committed to bringing the voice of health care to the public debate on clean energy, fossil fuel related pollution and our changing climate. We believe that Climate Change will be one of the greatest public health challenges in human history. Further, it is our conviction that those of us entrusted with the health of our patients, their families and communities have a responsibility to speak out on this most complex of issues.

Contact: hpforhc1@gmail.com

Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) is the only organization of medical professionals in Australia solely focused on promoting good health through care of the environment. We are GPs, surgeons, physicians, anesthetists, psychiatrists, pediatricians, public health specialists, academics, medical students and researchers. DEA understands that human health and wellbeing are dependent upon a rich, biodiverse planet where healthy ecosystems sustain life in balance. Humans need a future with clean air and water, healthy soils producing nutritious food, a stable climate, and a complex, diverse and interconnected humanity whose needs are met in a sustainable way.

Contact: admin@dea.org.au

The True Health Initiative is a global coalition of world renown experts, fighting fake facts and combating false doubts to create a world free of preventable diseases, using the time-honored, evidence-based, fundamentals of lifestyle and medicine.

Contact: jlutz@truehealthinitiative.org

The Brazilian College for Lifestyle Medicine (CBMEV) is an ethically-driven non-profit organization led by physicians, medical professionals and other social agents to advance evidence-based lifestyle medicine as the fundamental approach to assist individuals and communities in modifying behaviors to promote physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being as well as the planetary health.

Contact: rbaena@uol.com.br

The Caribbean College of Family Physicians is dedicated to the delivery of people-centred primary care that is continuous from cradle to grave, contextual and comprehensive whilst at the same time empowering patients to be partners in managing their health and that of their communities.

Contact: phenry_tt@yahoo.com

Since 2007, Health In Harmony's approach brings integrated solutions to the interdependent challenges of human development and the preservation of our natural world. We radically listen to communities and help them design and execute community-directed solutions. In so doing, communities preserve their health, their livelihoods and their rainforests - the lungs of our planet.

Contact: info@healthinharmony.org

The Uruguayan Society of Family and Community Medicine (SUMEFAC) gathers family and community physicians in Uruguay. We believe in the importance of caring for the environment as well as for the health of the people, understanding that everything is related on Earth. To best protect our patients, we are also committed to working to protect the health and vitality of our planet.

Contact: pravadellepiane@gmail.com

Health Care Without Harm is an international NGO that works to transform healthcare worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability and a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice. With regional offices and partner organisations in 10 countries and an international network of 36,000 hospitals and health centres in 58 countries, we leverage the health sector’s expertise, purchasing power, political clout, workforce development, and moral authority to create the conditions for healthy people, communities, and the environment.

Contact: aidan.long@hcwh.org

The Philippine Academy of Family Physicians is one of largest medical specialty organizations under the umbrella of the Philippine Medical Association. It is the specialty organization of Family Medicine specialists — primary care physicians dedicated to providing holistic, accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centered, coordinated, compassionate and culturally-effective health care.

Contact: secretariat@thepafp.org

Working Group:
The Clinicians for Planetary Health Working Group focuses on drafting statements and calls to action, developing and disseminating patient-facing materials, and strategizing additional areas of engagement.

Secretary: Dr. Aoife Kirk, Irish Doctors for Environment

Outreach + Metrics Manager: Hannah Nash, Dartmouth College

Partnerships Manager: Dr. Nathaniel Uchtmann, University of California San Francisco

See below for a full list of working group members and email erikaveidis@g.harvard.edu with any questions about getting involved.

Dr. Alan Abelsohn (University of Toronto), Dr. Roberto de Almeida (Federal University for Latin American Integration), Dr. Paul Auerbach (Stanford University School of Medicine), Dr. Renato Correa Baena (University of São Paulo School of Medicine), Dr. Ankush Bansal (Florida Clinicians for Climate Action), Stefi Barna (Centre for Sustainable Healthcare), Dr. Enrique Barros (WONCA Working Party on the Environment), Susan Benigas (American College of Lifestyle Medicine), Dr. Jeff Blackmer (Canadian Medical Association), Dr. Anthony Capon (University of Sydney), Cara Cook (Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments), Dr. Clara Dawson (Ghana Medical Association), Paola Rava Dellepiane (Uruguayan Society of Family and Community Medicine), Dr. Shanda Demorest (University of Minnesota School of Nursing), Ashley Emerson (Health In Harmony), Dr. Carlos A. Faerron Guzmán (InterAmerican Center for Global Health), Professor Sir Andy Haines (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), Dr. Irana Hawkins (Walden University), Dr. Paula Henry (Caribbean College of Family Physicians), Dr. Suszee Hill (Epsom & St. Helier University Hospitals), Dr. Courtney Howard (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment), Jonathan Jennings (Health In Harmony), Kennedy Jensen (Institute for Circumpolar Health Research), Dr. Terence Kemple (Royal College of General Practitioners), Dr. Aoife Kirk (Irish Doctors for the Environment), Bennett Kissel (University of California San Francisco), Dr. Daniel Knupp Augusto (Brazilian Society of Family and Community Medicine), Dr. Ann Kurth (Yale School of Nursing), Dr. Giuseppe La Torre (Sapienza University of Rome), Dr. Philip J. Landrigan (Boston College), Dr. Marta Lomazzi (World Federation of Public Health Associations), Jennifer Lutz (True Health Initiative), Professor Lynne Madden (University of Notre Dame Australia), Dr. Sandeep Maharaj (University of West Indies), Leyla McCurdy (Climate for Health), Dr. Alice McGushin (WONCA Working Party on the Environment), Dr. Amanda McKinney (Doane University), Jo Middleton (Brighton and Sussex Medical School), Dr. Ifeoma Monye (Brookfield Centre for Lifestyle Medicine of Nigeria), Dr. Frances Mortimer (Centre for Sustainable Healthcare), Hannah Nash (Dartmouth College), Dr. Monica Nirmala (Yayasan Alam Sehat Lestari), Surili Sutaria Patel (American Public Health Association), Dr. Teddie Potter (University of Minnesota School of Nursing), Rebecca Rehr (Climate for Health), Dr. Holly A. Rosencranz (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign College of Medicine), Dr. Todd L. Sack (My Green Doctor), Rachel Stancliffe (Centre for Sustainable Healthcare), Dr. James Szymankiewicz (Centre for Sustainable Healthcare), Noortje Trienekens (Health In Harmony), Dr. Nathaniel Uchtmann (University of California San Francisco), Dr. Ayesha P. Venkateswaran (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), Dr. Sarah Walpole (Center for Sustainable Healthcare), Dr. Samuel Wanjohi (Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya), Dr. Tammra Warby (WONCA Working Party on the Environment), Dr. Kinari Webb (Health In Harmony)

Clinicians for Planetary Health

Planetary Health Alliance

The Planetary Health Alliance is a consortium of over 120 dedicated universities, NGOs, government entities, research institutes, and other partners around the world committed to advancing planetary health.