The Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) 

The Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) is a metric-based tool for evaluating and improving planetary health in health professional schools. At each participating institution, students and faculty- teams fill out the report card, identifying opportunities for improvement and reaching out to relevant staff and faculty along the way. Results are published in an annual Earth Day report, which helps track institutional change over time.  

The Card assesses aspects of school which are firstly achievable, secondly measurable and are recognized as good ‘climate’ practice. We aim to assess, act and improve in the measured areas with a view to submitting our Card in June 2024. The 5 areas are as below. 

The hope is that this initiative will inspires our engagement, for our future, and for our planet. 

Planetary Health curriculum 

Today's medical students will be on the frontlines of tackling the impacts of environmental degradation on human health. It is critical that medical education reflects those health threats. We are ensuring our curriculum fulfils these needs.  

We shall also ensure that all undergraduate and postgraduate students in the medical school, along with staff, are provided with opportunities for learning about Sustainability.. 

Research in health and environment 

Interactions between health and the environment are complex and multifactorial. While climate change has been extensively studied planetary health is an emerging field. As we area a leading health institution with talented researchers and research resources, there should be research: 

• studying environmental health

• the health effects of climate change 

• climate solutions. 

We will assess all our publications for these areas and provide grant sources as required for future projects. 

Community outreach and advocacy 

It is important that our institution also directly engages with our communities. Although climate change is a problem largely created by those with power and resources, its impacts fall disproportionately on marginalized populations.  

We will assess and support our level of engagement within the community of the whole of Tayside, in terms of Planetary Health, and encourage lecture, papers and podcasts for such activities. 

Support for student-led Planetary Health initiatives 

Institutions should provide support for students to engage in sustainability quality improvement (QI) initiatives, discover mentors in their area of interest, & convene in student groups (funding for planetary health is available). We will encourage various student projects with sustainability themes, including healthcare design and avoiding harm and waste.' 

We will build on our development of Planetary Health modules, and welcome suggestions for these from staff and students.  

School sustainability 

The healthcare industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions as well as pollution that harms local, regional, and global ecosystems. Our medical school should sustainably source energy, food, and supplies; we should ensure institutional investments are free of fossil fuels and we will ‘green’ our lab spaces and hold ‘green’ events. Air miles for researchers will be evaluated and virtual presentations at meetings will be encouraged. Waste and Energy are NHS issue, and we are liaising with them about these. 

The PHRC team at Ninewells 

Out PHRC Team is led by Anna, and her team of  medical students. Time requirements would be about two hours this session for planning, then two hours per week. October to February or March 2023 - 2024. Please contact us if you want to be involved. We will be allocating students to each of the five areas, and hopefully you will see them in your area and engage actively with them. Updates will be provided via our newsletter, site, and ShareSpace. 

Our team will continually review our planetary health engagement, and work to improve it, bringing in new people as needed. 

We all understand the potential impacts of climate change on public health, health infrastructure, political stability, and global cooperation. Hopefully all of us within the School of Medicine will engage in the preparation of the June 2024 submission. Help is welcome!

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash