Developing new curriculum outlines and learning materials on climate change's health impacts for medical schools

Climate change is increasingly recognised as a major public health threat, yet medical education largely fails to address this issue. An international survey from 2019 [1] showed that only a small fraction of medical schools worldwide offers courses on the health effects of climate change. However, climate change is causing more health problems, and many healthcare professionals are not yet prepared to deal with them. Medical students, academics, and practising doctors alike expressed the need for structured, up-to-date knowledge in this field. However, a lack of teaching materials, institutional support, and academic training prevents its integration into curricula. In 2021, the CLIMATEMED project was initiated to respond to this need by developing comprehensive educational materials and training programmes tailored to students, academic staff, and medical doctors. The goal was to embed climate-health education into medical training and postgraduate learning, improve institutional capacity, and raise awareness of the issue across multiple levels of healthcare education. [1] Omrani et al. (2020) Envisioning planetary health in every medical curriculum: An international medical student organization’s DOI:10.1080/0142159X.2020.179

The CLIMATEMED project aimed to bridge the gap between climate-related health challenges and medical education. Our key objective was to develop a structured, evidence-based curriculum to teach medical students about the health impacts of climate change. We also sought to support academic staff by providing training and a teacher’s guide to help them integrate climate-health content into current courses. Another goal was to create postgraduate training materials for practising medical doctors, ensuring that climate-health knowledge extends beyond formal education. We wanted to raise awareness, shift attitudes, and build institutional capacity across participating universities. By offering materials in English, Hungarian, Romanian, and Serbian, we aimed to increase regional access and inclusivity. Ultimately, the project aimed to strengthen the preparedness of future and current healthcare professionals, contribute to more resilient health systems, and promote climate-health as a priority in medical education across Europe.

The project delivered four main outputs: PR1 – a set of teaching and learning materials for a 14-week lecture series for medical students; PR2 – training materials designed to support awareness-raising workshops for academic staff; PR3 – a teacher’s guide to support the integration of climate-health topics into existing teaching materials; PR4 – a set of teaching and learning materials developed for postgraduate training for practising medical doctors. All materials are available in English, Hungarian, Romanian, and Serbian. The teaching and learning materials are available in both classroom and e-learning formats.