COURSE DESCRIPTION: Sustainable Environmental Management and Climate Strategies in Healthcare
Discipline “Sustainable Environmental Management and Climate Strategies in Healthcare” is a mandatory interdisciplinary course that fosters in students a systemic understanding of the interrelationships between climate change, environmental factors, digital transformation, and public health.
Modern healthcare faces unprecedented challenges: a rise in diseases linked to climate change (cardiovascular, respiratory, and infectious conditions), the environmental footprint of medical activities (waste, CO2 emissions, and energy and water consumption), and the integration of digital technologies (telemedicine, artificial intelligence, and big data). Physicians across all specialties must be able to assess not only a patient's clinical status but also the environmental and digital determinants of their health, while also incorporating principles of sustainable development into their professional practice.
The course integrates knowledge from ecology, hygiene, public health, information technology, and clinical medicine. It fosters a climate-conscious and digital preventive mindset in students, which is essential for working in a changing world.
Aim: Developing student competencies in analyzing and managing environmental and climate-related risks to public health, as well as in applying digital tools and sustainable development principles within the healthcare system.
The content of a discipline:
- Introduction to the issue: global climate change as a public health challenge, direct and indirect pathways of impact on health, climate justice, and vulnerable populations.
- UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their adaptation to the healthcare sector. The role of the physician in achieving environmental sustainability.
- Environmental aspects of medical activities: classification and management of medical waste, energy and water consumption in medical organizations, and “green hospital” principles.
- Digital technologies in sustainable healthcare: telemedicine, electronic health records, artificial intelligence for resource management, and big data analysis for monitoring environmental risks and climate-sensitive diseases.
- Assessment methodology: life cycle assessment (LCA) of medical products, calculation of the medical organization's carbon footprint.
- Eco-design and sustainable medical technologies: environmental criteria for procurement, reusable and single-use products, biodegradable materials, circular economy in healthcare.
- Legal and ethical aspects: legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic regarding environmental protection and sanitary-epidemiological well-being; ethical dilemmas concerning the balance between patient safety and environmental sustainability.
- Protocols for conduct and emergency response during climate catastrophes, natural disasters, and man-made emergencies.
- Project activities: development of practical proposals to enhance the resilience of medical organizations, taking into account climate change and digitalization.