Our article in Annals of Internal Medicine discusses need and pathways to Sustainable Healthcare.
Climate change strikes at the very core of health care’s mission to keep people healthy. The health effect of extreme temperatures, forest fires, and natural calamities, and the expansion of the range of infectious diseases, are undeniably apparent.
Governments and international organizations may implement broader strategies and policies to deal with climate change, but health care systems are on the frontlines of its adverse effects: we in health care cannot afford to sit idle.
We discuss high-level changes health care stakeholders, policymakers, and clinicians can make to help reduce GHG emissions. Providing health care
for all will not succeed without addressing the twin risk for environmental pollution and ecological catastrophes secondary to climate change.
Health care has a moral imperative to reduce its emissions and environmental footprint and force transformation across all other sectors it touches.
It is high time that the health care community acts.
(Authors: Sarju Ganatra, Sourbha S Dani, Sadeer G Al-Kindi, Sanjay Rajagopalan)