CPDmatch: A single point of online access to find education related to climate and the environment

Case study submitted as part of Lancet Commission call for case studies.

Team members / location: England, Yorkshire

Issue: An Ipsos MORI survey commissioned by the Health Foundation in 2021 found that only 27% of NHS staff were aware of the NHS's net zero ambition. This was not only a concern from the perspective of internal engagement but a lost opportunity to utilise the trusted voice of healthcare professionals. Education is key to drive change but for education to be effective, it must first be found. At the time of developing CPDmatch, there was no website which was acting as an aggregator site for climate and environmental education.

Intervention: The solution was to create a website where climate and environmental Continuing Professional Development (CPD) was aggregated so all healthcare professionals could find courses, conferences, webinars, study days and articles to improve their level of literacy.

Outcomes: 

• Clinical
  Whilst CPDmatch accommodates healthcare CPD, we cannot directly link the activities undertaken by healthcare professionals and therefore patient outcomes to our resources. However, positive feedback from healthcare professionals has been received.
• Environmental
  A future task will involve measuring whether our users have reduced their travel as a result of using CPDmatch which helps them find local and virtual education.
• Social
  In addition to traditional education, we have also permitted the advertising of events such as beach cleans and workshops. We do this because all these events are educational in some form plus, they encourage physical activity and improve wellbeing.
• Financial
  This analysis would need to follow a wider assessment of healthcare professional behavior following use of CPDmatch. We examine whether event organisers gain more attendees which may improve their own revenue flow or whether environmentally literate healthcare professionals travel less because of their use of CPDmatch.

Key learning point: Creating a single point of online access to climate and environmental education makes sense and has potential to improve literacy across this and other key professional groups, supplier industries and the public. Marketing is difficult and Search Engine Optimisation critical to success. Advice to others would be to keep the first proof-of-concept simple and build slowly.