Overview

Climate change is a growing public health concern with implications for safety and well-being; nutrition and food security; food, water, and vector-borne diseases; and mental health. Climate change and the social determinants of health are closely aligned, contributing to disparate environmental exposures and health inequalities, as a disproportionate number of low-income individuals, some communities of color, and those with higher vulnerability to disease and chronic health conditions are at risk.

Join national experts and faculty from the MGH Institute of Health Professions School of Nursing Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice and Health, and the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for the Environment and Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital to develop sustainable strategies to achieve human and planetary health.

Read the 2022 Lancet Countdown U.S. Brief which is supported by a diverse group of health experts from over 70 institutions, organizations, and centers who recognize that climate change is first and foremost a health crisis.

Objectives

Articulate how climate change affects human and planetary health
Identify strategies to achieve sustainability at the individual, healthcare systems, community, and policy levels
Build community by engaging with other participants to learn and expand networking spheres

Keynote Speakers

Carlos A. Faerron Guzman, MD

Dr. Faerron is an Associate Professor of Global Health at the University of Maryland Baltimore Graduate School. He is also the Director of the Centro Interamericano para la Salud Global (CISG) in Costa Rica and acts as the Associate Director of the Planetary Health Alliance at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Faerron follows a framework of equity in health and human rights as guiding principles and firmly believes in progress in health through community empowerment, action/research, and participatory education. Dr. Faerron holds adjunct positions at the School of Medicine/Universidad de Costa Rica, the School of Professional Studies/Northwestern University, and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Barbara Sattler, RN, DrPH, FAAN

Dr. Sattler is Professor Emeritus at the University of San Francisco and an international leader in environmental health and nursing. She is a founding Board member of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, an organization that is helping to integrate environmental health, including climate change, into nursing education, practice, research, and policy/advocacy and she is a founding member of California Nurses for Environmental Health and Justice which focuses on California-specific issues and policies.

She has been an advisor to the US EPA’s Office of Child Health Protection and the National Library of Medicine for informational needs of health professionals on environmental health. For over 20 years, she directed the Environmental Health Education Center at the University of Maryland where she was the Principal Investigator on a host of grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Health Resources Service Administration. For a decade, Dr. Sattler was supported by grants from the US Department of Agriculture to bring local, sustainable, healthy foods to Maryland’s hospitals. In California, she is working with broad based coalitions on climate change, oil drilling and on farmworker health and safety issues.

Dr. Sattler is a Registered Nurse with an MPH and DrPH from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.

Speakers

Ann-Christine Duhaime, MD

Dr. Duhaime is a senior pediatric neurosurgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital and is the Nicholas T. Zervas Distinguished Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. Her neuroscience research investigates mechanisms, pathophysiology, imaging, and treatment of injury in the immature brain, using translational and clinical approaches to study injuries occurring in infants and young children, including those seen most commonly in child abuse. The work also investigates plasticity, recovery, and return of brain function in children and adolescents during maturation.

Dr. Duhaime also has a longstanding interest in the relationship between brain and behavior, and in environmental issues. She is a Faculty Associate of the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Beginning with a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute in 2016 she has explored the neurobiology of reward circuitry and plasticity and its relevance to pro-environmental behavior, and also worked with a diverse team to design a prototype advanced “green” biophilic pediatric hospital. Her book on this work, Minding the Climate, was published in 2022 (Harvard University Press). She now serves as Associate Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for the Environment and Health and as Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Climate Change and Health.

Elizabeth Schenk, PhD, RN, FAAN

Executive Director of Environmental Stewardship - Providence

Beth Schenk serves as the Executive Director of Environmental Stewardship for Providence, one of the nation’s largest non-profit health systems, helping to lead its journey toward being carbon negative by 2030.

Beth is an assistant research professor at Washington State University College of Nursing. She led the development of CHANT: Climate and Health Tool, measuring health professionals’ awareness and engagement with climate change and health. CHANT has been translated to several languages and used in over 30 nations.

She is active at national, state, and local levels, serving on the boards of the national organization The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, the state organization Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate, and the local organization Climate Smart Missoula. She hosts the Nurses for Healthy Environments Podcast, now in its fifth season.

Bruce Bekkar, MD

Bruce Bekkar is a women’s health physician and international keynote speaker engaged with the climate crisis since 2007. He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Climate Change and Health and Frontiers in Climate, and as a Fellow and member of the Leadership Circle Executive Committee of Climate for Health at ecoAmerica in Washington, DC. At home in Southern California, he is Chair Emeritus of the Public Health Advisory Council and a public health consultant for the County of San Diego Regional Decarbonization Framework. Bruce has spoken to audiences including the American Meteorological Society, Genentech, England’s Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the California State Senate and members of the U.S. House of Representatives. He is the lead author of the first large-scale review of birth impacts and climate change in the US, published in JAMA in June 2020.

Faculty

Patrice Nicholas DNSc, DHL (Hon), MPH, RN, ANP-C, FAAN

Distinguished Teaching Professor, School of Nursing and Director, Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health, MGH Institute of Health Professions; Faculty Nurse Scientist, Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Nicholas joined the Institute faculty in 1989 after many years of clinical practice at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She is Professor and teaches in the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program as well as in the Direct-Entry Master of Science and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs. She is also a member of the steering committee for the Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice and Health at the Institute.

Dr. Nicholas is engaged in research on quality of life in chronic illness, particularly HIV/AIDS and international/cross-cultural work. She completed both a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health in 1999, and a Master of Public Health degree in International Health (HIV/AIDS Focus).

Dr. Nicholas was the recipient of a J. William Fulbright Senior Scholar Award for 2003-2004 to study population issues and health status in Germany. She serves on the editorial review panels of several journals including AIDS Care, American Journal of Public Health, Nursing Research, American Journal of Nursing, Nursing and Health Care: Perspectives on Community, and The Journal of Nursing Scholarship.

Dr. Nicholas is the recipient of several grants and awards for her research. She is a Visiting Professor at Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, and St. Luke's Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Nicholas was recently awarded a J. William Fulbright Senior Scholar Award in South Africa for 2006-2007 to continue her research and teaching on symptom management and adherence to therapy in HIV disease in Durban, South Africa. In 2010 she received the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care Research Award. She is also the recipient of a Nursing Spectrum Community Service Award and a Boston Business Journal Champion in Health Care Award.

Suellen Breakey, PhD, RN

Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Associate Director, Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health, MGH Institute of Health Professions

Suellen Breakey, PhD, RN, is Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at MGH Institute of Health Professions. Dr. Breakey also serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice and Health at the Institute.

Her clinical background includes cardiac surgery, critical care, hospice care, and global health nursing. Her global nursing efforts are focused on prevention and treatment of rheumatic heart disease in resource-limited settings. She is a leader with Team Heart, a nonprofit organization that provides RHD screening, cardiac surgical care and follow up, and patient/provider education in Rwanda.

Her scholarship interests include bioethics, global health ethics, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. In 2015 Dr. Breakey's book Global Nursing in the 21st Century was published.

Wynne Armand, MD

Wynne Armand, MD is Associate Director of the MGH Center for the Environment and Health, Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, and Physician in the Division of General Internal Medicine at MGH.

Prior to coming to MGH, she received her medical degree at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), where she also received her residency training in a program focused on providing care to the underserved.

Dr. Armand practices primary care at MGH Chelsea HealthCare Center, where she provides comprehensive preventive care, chronic disease management and urgent care to adult patients in a diverse, urban setting.

As an associate director of the MGH Center for the Environment and Health, she works towards integrating environmental sustainability into hospital activities and health care.

Dr. Armand also serves as a faculty editor for Primary Care Office Insite (PCOI), a knowledge resource that guides day-to-day clinical practice for primary care teams at MGH and across Mass General Brigham, and is a regular contributor to the Harvard Health Blog.

Gregg Furie, MD

Dr. Gregg Furie is Medical Director for Climate and Sustainability and a primary care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. In this role he works to prepare clinicians to address current and emerging health threats from climate change and to reduce the environmental impact of clinical care. He is a member of the Brigham Climate Action Council and the Mass General Brigham Climate and Sustainability Leadership Council. Dr. Furie graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Medical School, completed residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at Yale.

There are no relevant financial or non-financial relationships with ineligible companies for faculty or planners to disclose.

Panelists

Vi Thuy Nguyen, MD

Vi Thuy Nguyen, MD completed her 5-year-term as Assistant Chief of Pediatrics at a large HMO in town. In her professional life, she managed over 90 outpatient general pediatricians with special oversight on the South County. She was responsible for Pediatric Quality measures with special emphasis on pediatric asthma health and vaccine measures. She is a Fellow of Environmental Health as part of the American Academy of Pediatrics and serves as Co-Chair of San Diego’s AAP Climate Change and Health Committee, and AAP California State Government Affairs Expert Committee on Environmental Health and Climate Change. She is Co-Founder of San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air, a loose coalition of concerned pediatricians who advocate for pediatric asthmatic patients. Originally earning her MD at Harvard Medical School and trained in general pediatrics and pediatric endocrinology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Vi has pivoted her career to focus on environmental health. She is a proud trained Climate Reality Leader and Co-Lead of Kaiser San Diego’s Sustainability/Green Team. In 2022, she began her term as Chair, Public Health Advisory Council, Climate Actions Campaign. She actively blogs and Instagrams as an alternate eco-avatar plogger (jogger and beach cleaner) in the Pacific Beach area. As @drplasticpicker she tries to link physician wellness with climate advocacy. She is also a dedicated trash artist!

Elizabeth Pinsky, MD

Elizabeth Pinsky is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and pediatrician at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is the Associate Director of the Pediatric Psychiatry Consultation Service, and at Shriner’s Hospital for Children Boston. Her clinical interests focus on the intersection of child mental and physical health, including childhood trauma associated with medical care, fostering resilience in medically ill children, and other psychiatric aspects of pediatric medical illness. She believes that climate change poses the most urgent threat to children at that intersection of physical and mental health, and that clinicians caring for children must advocate for a rapid and just transition off fossil fuels. She serves as the Associate Director for Advocacy at the MGH Center for Environment and Health and is also a founding member of Climate Code Blue, a Boston-area climate action group for physicians and other health professionals.

Seema Gandhi, MD

Seema Gandhi, MD, is an anesthesiologist and the Medical Director of Sustainability at UCSF Health. Dr. Gandhi trained in India, the United Kingdom, and the U.S., which provides her with a unique global perspective. Compared to other countries, Dr. Gandhi has observed many medical practices in the US that are unnecessarily high-cost and wasteful, motivating her to advocate for more sustainable and evidence-based practices in healthcare. She strongly believes that clinicians are integral to the effort to decarbonize healthcare and strives to educate, involve, and motivate her peers to become sustainability champions. In addition to her clinical duties, Dr. Gandhi has played an instrumental role in many of the important environmental efforts that make UCSF a leader in sustainable healthcare.

Agenda

8:30 - 9:00 am Welcome & Symposium Orientation

9:00 - 9:45 am Impact of Climate Change on Human and Planetary Health

Carlos A. Faerron Guzman, MD
Barbara Sattler RN, MPH, DrPH

9:45 - 10:15 am Discussion and Q&A

10:15 - 10:30 am Break

10:30 - 11:30 am Achieving sustainability at the individual, healthcare system, community, and policy levels

The Individual - Tina Duhaime, MD
The Healthcare System - Beth Schenk PhD, RN, FAAN
Community/Policy - Bruce Bekkar, MD

11:30 - 12:30 pm Breakout with Speakers & Panelists

The Individual - Tina Duhaime, MD & Vi Nguyen, MD
The Healthcare System - Beth Schenk PhD, RN, FAAN & Seema Gandhi, MD
Community/Policy - Bruce Bekkar, MD & Elizabeth Pinsky, MD

Registration

General

^$30

Student

^$15

For individuals currently enrolled in a full-time or part-time degree-granting program at the time of the event.

All registrants will receive a link to the recorded version of the digital event via email.

Accreditation

Jointly_Accredited_Provider_JPEG

In support of improving patient care, MGH Institute of Health Professions is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Pharmacists
ACPE logo-1 This activity provides 3.5 contact hours (0.35 CEUs) of continuing education credit. ACPE Universal Activity Number (UAN): UAN JA4008265-0000-23-001-L99-P and UAN JA4008265-0000-23-001-L99-T.

NOTE FOR PHARMACISTS: Upon closing of the electronic evaluation, IHP will upload the pharmacy-related continuing education information to CPE Monitor within 60 days. Per ACPE rules, IHP does not have access nor the ability to upload credits requested after the evaluation closes. It is the responsibility of the pharmacist or pharmacy technician to provide the correct information [NABP ePID and DOB (in MMDD format)] in order to receive credit for participating in a CE activity.

Physicians
MGH Institute of Health Professions designates this live activity for a maximum of 3.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in this activity.

Physician Assistants
MGH Institute of Health Professions has been authorized by the American Academy of PAs (AAPA) to award AAPA Category 1 CME credit for activities planned in accordance with AAPA CME Criteria. This activity is designated for 3.5 AAPA Category 1 CME credits. PAs should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.

Nursing
MGH Institute of Health Professions designates this activity for 3.5 contact hours for nurses.

The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Board (AANPCB) accepts credit from organizations accredited by the ACCME and ANCC.

Social Work

As a Jointly Accredited Organization, MGH Institute of Health Professions is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. MGH Institute of Health Professions maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive 3.5 clock hours for continuing education credits.

Psychologists

Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibly for the content of the programs. MGH Institute of Health Professions designates this activity for 3.5 CE credits.

Get Updates

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Climate Change & Health 2023: Achieving Human and Planetary Health through Sustainability Action

A Virtual Symposium

^{Saturday, April 1, 2023
8:30am - 12:30pm (EDT)
3.5 CEs available}

Overview

Objectives