Patient-planetaryhealthco-benefit prescribing in a circumpolar health region: a qualitative study of physician voices from the Northwest Territories, Canada (original) (raw)

Patient-Planetary Health Co-benefit Prescribing: Emerging Considerations for Health Policy and Health Professional Practice

Frontiers in Public Health, 2021

In addition to the importance of fostering and developing measures for better health-system resilience globally from the effects of climate change, there have been increasing calls for health professionals, as well as public health and medical education systems, to become partners in climate change mitigation efforts. Direct clinical practice considerations, however, have not been adequately fostered equitably across all regions with an often-confusing array of practice areas within planetary health and sustainable healthcare. This article calls for a more coordinated effort within clinical practice spaces given the urgency of global environmental change, while also taking lessons from Indigenous traditional knowledge systems-a viewpoint that is rarely heard from or prioritized in public health or medicine. Simpler and more coordinated messaging in efforts to improve patient and planetary health are needed. The creation of unifying terminology within planetary health-rooted clinical and public health practice has been proposed with the potential to bring forth dialogue between and within disciplinary offshoots and public health advocacy efforts, and within clinical and health-system policy spaces.

Translating Planetary Health Principles Into Sustainable Primary Care Services

Frontiers in Public Health, 2022

Global anthropogenic environmental degradations such as climate change are increasingly recognized as critical public health issues, on which human beings should urgently act in order to preserve sustainable conditions of living on Earth. "Planetary Health" is a breakthrough concept and emerging research field based on the recognition of the interdependent relationships between living organisms-both human and non-human-and their ecosystems. In that regards, there have been numerous calls by healthcare professionals for a greater recognition and adoption of Planetary Health perspective. At the same time, current Western healthcare systems are facing their limits when it comes to providing affordable, equitable and sustainable healthcare services. Furthermore, while hospital-centrism remains the dominant model of Western health systems, primary care and public health continue to be largely undervalued by policy makers. While healthcare services will have to adapt to the sanitary impacts of environmental degradations, they should also ambition to accompany and accelerate the societal transformations required to re-inscribe the functioning of human societies within planetary boundaries. The entire health system requires profound transformations to achieve this, with obviously a key role for public health. But we argue that the first line of care represented by primary care might also have an important role to play, with its holistic, interdisciplinary, and longitudinal approach to patients, strongly grounded in their living environments and communities. This will require however to redefine the roles, activities and organization of primary care actors to better integrate socio-environmental determinants of health, strengthen interprofessional collaborations, including non-medical collaborations and more generally develop new, environmentally-centered models of care. Furthermore, a planetary health perspective translated in primary care will require the strengthening of synergies between institutions and actors in the field of health and sustainability.

Planetary health action framework: A case study SPECIAL ISSUE: PLANETARY HEALTH

Planetary health action framework: A case study, 2022

Planetary Health (PH) action is urgent to avoid the collapse of Earth's systems that sustain human health. PH care has been proposed as an approach to improve health equity and reduce healthcare´s ecological footprint. This paper presents the conceptual framework of patient-centered PH care as essential for PH action at the community level. We examine and reflect on one primary care clinical case through 8 lenses: 1) Actor-Network Theory, 2) Evidencebased medicine, 3) Patient-Centered Clinical Method; 4) Principles of Primary Care, 5) Proposed new primary care derivate principle of PH care, 6) the WONCA´s (World Organization of Family Doctors) core competencies tree, 7) WONCA´s curriculum, and 8) Sustainable Development Goal 3. This case offers insights into functions of primary care that mitigate, adapt and build resilience to the challenges of climate emergency and Anthropocene. It "connectsthe-dots" to propose a new identity of primary care, elaborate a blueprint for patient-centered PH care and a roadmap for PH action at the community level.

The Role of Health Co-Benefits in the Development of Australian Climate Change Mitigation Policies

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2016

Reducing domestic carbon dioxide and other associated emissions can lead to short-term, localized health benefits. Quantifying and incorporating these health co-benefits into the development of national climate change mitigation policies may facilitate the adoption of stronger policies. There is, however, a dearth of research exploring the role of health co-benefits on the development of such policies. To address this knowledge gap, research was conducted in Australia involving the analysis of several data sources, including interviews carried out with Australian federal government employees directly involved in the development of mitigation policies. The resulting case study determined that, in Australia, health co-benefits play a minimal role in the development of climate change mitigation policies. Several factors influence the extent to which health co-benefits inform the development of mitigation policies. Understanding these factors may help to increase the political utility of future health co-benefits studies.

Eighth Annual Conference of inVIVO Planetary Health on Transforming Life: Unify Personal, Public, and Planetary Health

Challenges, 2018

inVIVO Planetary Health is a progressive, humanist scientific movement promoting both evidence and advocacy around concepts of planetary health which denote the interdependence between human health and place at all scales. Our seventh annual conference was held in Canmore, Alberta 4-6th April 2018, themed “Transforming Life: Unify Personal, Public, and Planetary Health” included diverse topics and perspectives to emphasise the interdependent vitality of all natural and anthropogenic ecosystems—social, political and otherwise. A key outcome of this meeting was the The Canmore Declaration: Statement of Principles for Planetary Health (published separately) which underscores that improving the health of all systems depends on: mutualistic values; planetary consciousness; advocacy; unity of purpose; recognition of biopsychosocial interdependence; emotional bonds between people and the land; efforts to counter elitism, social dominance and marginalization; meaningful cross-sectoral and c...