Climate Change and Disasters: What the Healthcare System Needs to Do Differently

Climate change is heightening both long-term adverse risks to human health and the immediate-term risk of injuries and illness following climate-related disaster events that are becoming more frequent and severe. In addition to its direct health effects, climate change poses new threats to the nation’s health care infrastructure — with potential to negatively impact healthcare capacity amidst increasing demand — through risks of flooding, wind damage, heat stress, power outages, and other physical harm to facilities. In this grand rounds, we will discuss how the healthcare system needs to change how it identifies climate-related threats and better prepares to preserve its ability to function in the face of future disasters.

This webinar is co-hosted by the Center for the Environment and Health at Massachusetts General Hospital and the MGH Institute of Health Professions (IHP) Center for Climate Change, Climate Justice, and Health.

Featured Speaker

Paul D. Biddinger, MD, FACEP

Chief Preparedness and Continuity Officer at Mass General Brigham in Boston
Ann L. Prestipino MPH Endowed Chair in Emergency Preparedness
Director of the Center for Disaster Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital
Director of the Emergency Preparedness Research, Evaluation and Practice (EPREP) Program at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Medical officer for the MA-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) in the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

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