Doctors in Europe are now being told they must “consider the climate impact” when prescribing asthma inhalers for patients.
The move is part of a new European-wide curriculum being developed that will “infuse” the green agenda throughout the timetable.
Medical school leaders have said that future doctors will be expected to take “climate change” into account when treating patients, The Telegraph reports.
They will also have more training on how to recognize and treat heatstroke over claims that “global warming” will impact public health.
Mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever will also become a more prominent part of the curriculum at European medical schools.
Insiders stressed that the curriculum is yet to be finalized, however.
Nevertheless, the advice about inhalers is just one option that could be considered.
The initiative is being overseen by the European Network on Climate and Health Education (ENCHE).
The organization is made up of a group of 25 medical schools led by the University of Glasgow in the UK.
ENCHE will bring “climate lessons” into the curriculum of more than 10,000 medical students.
Dr. Camille Huser, of the University of Glasgow and co-chairman of the network, told the Guardian:
“The doctors of the future will see a different array of presentations and diseases that they are not seeing now.
“They need to be aware of that so they can recognize them.”
Medical students will be taught “green prescribing.”
The practice involves doctors encouraging patients to take up activities such as community gardening and tree planting.
This is alongside “active travel” which includes walking or cycling rather than driving.
Both activities offer health benefits to individuals while being positive for the environment, the group notes.
Dr. Huser said the current teaching at medical schools often consisted of a single lecture or module on the subject.
However, the network now envisages environmental considerations being “infused” throughout the timetable.
She said: “Climate change doesn’t necessarily create a new range of diseases we haven’t seen before, but it exacerbates the ones that do exist.
“Diabetes, for example, is not something that people link to climate change, but the symptoms and complications become more frequent and worse for people in a world where the climate has changed.”
Professor Iain McInnes, also an ENCHE co-chairman from the University of Glasgow, said its aim was “building the conversation into the medical curriculum so that the doctors of the future are literate in this conversation.”
“This is as pivotal and critical to their thinking as it is to manage obesity, smoking, and other environmental challenges,” he added.
“It is simply part of the DNA of being a doctor.”
https://slaynews.com/news/doctors-told-cut-back-prescribing-inhalers-asthma-patients-fight-climate-change/
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