European platform for Planetary health in Medical education

Climate change, biodiversity loss and global pollution are not only imposing an enormous threat to the health of our planet and its ecosystems, but also to the health of humanity by destabilizing ecosystems and increasing the risk for a range of diseases. Strikingly enough, the healthcare sector itself poses a considerable environmental burden and contributes to pollution and climate change related diseases and deaths. Planetary Health is a relatively novel field focusing on these interactions and aims to characterise the health of human civilisation and the state of the natural systems on which it depends. Health care professionals are generally not trained in Planetary Health as part of their education, and they often have limited knowledge on Planetary Health issues. The (medical) curricula are already considered overloaded and introducing new topics on which medical teachers have limited knowledge is challenging. With the creation of the ePlanet network we aimed to overcome these challenges by providing innovative high-quality educational materials on Planetary Health for future healthcare professionals (HCPs).

The integration of the topic Planetary Health in the education and training of (future) HCPs is fundamental for developing the knowledge, attitudes, and practices required to help address the accelerating impacts of transgressing the planetary boundaries on human health and to mitigate the burden the healthcare sector has on the environment. By creating and disseminating the innovative ePlanet educational materials, we aimed to have Planetary Health become part of the ‘modus operandi’ of (future) HCPs by providing innovative high-quality educational material that is easy to implement for medical educators. We wanted to contribute to a more sustainable and climate-resilient healthcare sector on the long-term by deepening the understanding and creating awareness of the relation between the transgression of the planetary boundaries and the impacts on human and Planetary Health. Whilst doing this, we wanted to create a strong novel network with our consortium for the development and dissemination of Planetary Health education knowledge and experience.

The concrete outputs that were realised during this project were the five PRs: PR1) Development of an assessment tool of students’ knowledge, values, and practices on Planetary Health; PR2) Definition of a competency profile for students which is based upon the essential knowledge students need to acquire in Planetary Health, the attitudes necessary for a sustainable transition in society, and the practices to start greening healthcare delivery; PR3) Development of digital microlearnings with extensive background information and literature sources on the main selected Planetary Health topics covered during the ePlanet game; PR4) Development of challenge-based modules, which allows interactive and innovative teaching methods in class for educators to use for students to develop the necessary attitudes and practices by working on Planetary Health challenges; PR5) Development of an innovative online educational platform with the microlearnings of PR3 and featured ePlanet serious game focusing on understanding the complex interlinkages in Planetary Health enabling educators to let students discover these topics by themselves in an engaging and interactive manner. Furthermore, our project led to strengthened collaboration between the consortium partners, especially for the junior members, which will allow them to build their network in this new field of Planetary Health. This is the beginning of the establishment of a strong network and partnerships, not only for this project, but also for future projects within both research and education in the Planetary Health field where capacity building of educators and content-experts is in high demand and need.