The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences will train doctors in climate and health
On 14 October in Berlin, twenty-five European universities — including the University of Barcelona — presented the European Network on Climate and Health Education (ENCHE). The coalition aims to equip more than ten thousand medical students with the knowledge and skills to respond to the impacts of climate change on human health and provide more sustainable health care. The UB’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences — the only public university in Spain integrated in the network — is also part of the initiative to teach students about climate and health.
On 14 October in Berlin, twenty-five European universities — including the University of Barcelona — presented the European Network on Climate and Health Education (ENCHE). The coalition aims to equip more than ten thousand medical students with the knowledge and skills to respond to the impacts of climate change on human health and provide more sustainable health care. The UB’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences — the only public university in Spain integrated in the network — is also part of the initiative to teach students about climate and health.
The ENCHE network, founded by leading medical faculties in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and United States, will integrate climate and health education into curricula. The aim is to help medical students recognize, prevent and treat the growing burden of the climate crisis on public health, as well as to offer sustainable health solutions.
The Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences will train climate and health physicians
Climate change is undoubtedly one of the greatest health challenges of our time. Factors such as extreme temperatures and air pollution are aggravating infectious and chronic diseases, as well as vector-borne diseases, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory pathologies, and conditions affecting mental health. Similarly, the health sector contributes to the climate crisis, with about 5% of greenhouse gas emissions originating from healthcare.
At present, medical education does not systematically include teaching on the interconnection between climate and health. ENCHE network aims to provide the best knowledge and training in degree programmes to address current and future climate-related health threats, both in terms of the impact of climate on health and at the health care level. The UB’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, which is part of the project, will implement specific teaching on climate and health in the medical degree programme to provide future doctors with a broader training in this new aspect of medicine resulting from climate change.
ENCHE network
The ENCHE network is chaired by the University of Glasgow (United Kingdom), and will become a regional centre of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education (GCCHE) at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University (United States). ENCHE is also supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), the WHO Academy and the Sustainable Health Coalition.
Currently, 25 medical schools have joined the initiative and are members of the ENCHE network, such as the UB’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and other faculties such as those of the University of Oxford (United Kingdom) and Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), the University of Glasgow (Scotland), the University of Lisbon (Portugal), the University of Milan (Italy), the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium), Paris Cité University (France), Claude Bernard University of Lyon I (France), the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and the University of Lund (Sweden).
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