The CLIMATEMED project aimed to bridge the gap between climate-related health challenges and medical education. Our key objective was to develop a structured, evidence-based curriculum to teach medical students about the health impacts of climate change. We also sought to support academic staff by providing training and a teacher’s guide to help them integrate climate-health content into current courses. Another goal was to create postgraduate training materials for practising medical doctors, ensuring that climate-health knowledge extends beyond formal education. We wanted to raise awareness, shift attitudes, and build institutional capacity across participating universities. By offering materials in English, Hungarian, Romanian, and Serbian, we aimed to increase regional access and inclusivity. Ultimately, the project aimed to strengthen the preparedness of future and current healthcare professionals, contribute to more resilient health systems, and promote climate-health as a priority in medical education across Europe.
Climate change is increasingly recognised as a major public health threat, yet medical education largely fails to address this issue. An international survey from 2019 [1] showed that only a small fraction of medical schools worldwide offers courses on the health effects of climate change. However, climate change is causing more health problems, and many healthcare professionals are not yet prepared to deal with them. Medical students, academics, and practising doctors alike expressed the need for structured, up-to-date knowledge in this field. However, a lack of teaching materials, institutional support, and academic training prevents its integration into curricula. In 2021, the CLIMATEMED project was initiated to respond to this need by developing comprehensive educational materials and training programmes tailored to students, academic staff, and medical doctors. The goal was to embed climate-health education into medical training and postgraduate learning, improve institutional capacity, and raise awareness of the issue across multiple levels of healthcare education. [1] Omrani et al. (2020) Envisioning planetary health in every medical curriculum: An international medical student organization’s DOI:10.1080/0142159X.2020.179