Founded in 2019, the Planetary Health Report Card Initiative was developed by medical students at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and piloted by UCSF and Stanford to increase planetary health awareness and accountability among future health professionals. Today 75 medical schools in over seven countries participate in this initiative, including the UW School of Medicine (UWSOM).
Planetary health is described by the Planetary Health Alliance as, “a solutions-oriented, trans-disciplinary field and social movement focused on analyzing and addressing the impacts of human disruptions to Earth’s natural systems on human health and all life on Earth.”
The Planetary Health Report Card is a student-driven, metric-based approach to inspire planetary health education and sustainable healthcare in medical schools globally. Its aim is to compare medical schools based on discrete metrics in five main categories:
1) planetary health curriculum
2) interdisciplinary research in health and environment
3) university support for student planetary health initiatives
4) community outreach centered on environmental health impacts
5) medical school campus sustainability.
Seventeen UW medical students under the mentorship of Colette Kirchhoff, M.D., have contributed to the UW School of Medicine report since 2021. Overall, the School has shown improvement year over year. UWSOM scored lowest on the Curriculum metric.
In December 2021, the UWSOM Curriculum Committee voted to recognize planetary health as an important aspect of the curriculum and, if possible, implement planetary health into the UWSOM curriculum. The Curriculum Committee charged a workgroup led by Dr. Kirchhoff and Peter Rabinowitz M.D., to address these goals.
A diverse group of 18 faculty and 13 students joined the Planetary Health Workgroup and collaborated to improve our Planetary Health Report Card metrics. A major milestone of the workgroup was the completion of a Report that includes a Planetary Health Mission and Philosophy, Learning Objectives, and a plan to integrate planetary health into the full medical school curriculum.
Dr. Kirchhoff commented, “I am grateful to the UW students who initiated and led this process. The ongoing support of administrators Edith Wang and Heather McPhillips have been crucial to the group’s success. If implemented, we will be among the very first medical schools in the US to have a planetary health curriculum for all four years of medical school. We hope to train a new generation of physician leaders who are equipped with the scientific background, expertise, leadership, and advocacy skills to tackle this world-wide dilemma. Physicians have an ethical and moral responsibility to patients and to society to increase their understanding of Planetary Health.”
This link will take you to the Planetary Health Report Card to read the complete Summary of Findings for UWSOM and see the recommendations for our School to make improvements during the 2023-24 academic year and beyond. To view the overall Planetary Health Report Card for Medicine, please use this link.