Novel Collaboration Between Earth Scientists and Physician Leaders

Abstract:

In 2017, the University of Colorado pioneered a novel physician fellowship in climate change and health science policy to train health care professionals in the realms of public health, environmental science, public policy, and science communication of the impacts of climate change on human health (Lemery et al., 2019). This program is predicated on the fact that climate change is a health care emergency. Within this program emerged an innovative research collaboration between physicians and Earth scientists in order to bring a shared perspective on climate change and its health impacts upon our global society.

Within this partnership, we were able to synergize upon two disciplines’ expertise to produce novel data with important health implications. As an initial project in 2018-2019, we conducted a transdisciplinary study regarding dust storms and hospital critical care utilization in the US. Prior studies have shown the negative implications of increasing dust levels on public health (Achakulwisut et al., 2019), but the impact of dust storms on critical care demand had not been investigated. The study found hospitals can expect a 4.8% increase in ICU admissions on the day of a nearby dust storm and a 7.5% increase in respiratory admissions five days after a dust storm, with larger increases possible for more intense storms (Rublee et al., 2020). This study served as a proof of concept on the value of such cross-disciplinary scholarship in deciphering the complex nature of climate change and to elucidate public health and health care system improvements, like extreme weather early warning systems to hospital operations, which may be effective to protect patients from the harmful effects of climate-related dust storms.

We continue to build upon collaborations between physicians and Earth scientists, and currently are investigating air quality and subsequent health impacts from methane emissions, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on local air quality. It is our hope that this pioneering partnership will successfully help to frame the effects of climate change as a health care emergency and serve as a model for further climate and health directed research.