Mapping Climate Change And Health Into The Medical Curriculum Co-Development Of A “Planetary Health–Organ System Map” For Graduate Medical Education 2021 University of Melbourne
Overview [Extract]
Climate change is a health emergency posing significant threats to health and to the healthcare sector.
As a result, there is growing demand for planetary health concepts, including the health impacts of climate change and the principles of sustainable healthcare, to be embedded systematically into medical education and practice.
Student members of Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA) undertook a review of their Doctor of Medicine (MD) graduate curriculum. Their objective was to align their education more closely with the existing Australian Medical Council graduate outcome statements (within resource below).
The students partnered with staff across several departments and two schools within the University of Melbourne Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences faculty to form the volunteer “Planetary Health Curriculum Taskforce”.
The Taskforce developed ‘Mapping Climate Change and Health into the Medical Curriculum’ as a resource for all Australian medical educators, students and clinicians.
The resource exemplifies how planetary health concepts and knowledge can be integrated into the organ systems framework for medical education. This framework, which compartmentalises content according to the body’s organ systems, is familiar to all Australian medical students and teachers.
Mapping Climate Change and Health into the Medical Curriculum demonstrates how planetary health is a cross cutting theme relevant to every specialty. It may be used as a guide for curriculum development, whereby planetary health can be integrated into existing organ systems-based teaching. Educators can easily find relevant planetary health learning for lectures, tutorials, case based discussions and clinical scenarios.
With the frequency and severity of extreme weather events predicted to continue to worsen, doctors, whether in training or in practice, must be equipped with the knowledge, skills, values, competence and confidence they need to sustainably assess, manage and treat patients presenting with climate change related illnesses.
This resource supports the development of well-rounded medical students and doctors equipped to practice medicine now and in the future.
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Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
