Planetary Health Report Card - UK recruitment

The Planetary Health Report Card is a medical-student driven initiative designed to inspire medical schools internationally to introduce climate change and planetary health into the medical school curriculum, expand research efforts, engage with communities most affected by climate change and environmental injustice, and support passionate medical students who are trying to organize around planetary health at the institutional level. A set of metrics in these four category areas allows students and faculty to assess the planetary health engagement of their institution and quantitatively and qualitatively compare themselves with other medical schools. An annual report card will be published for medical schools enrolled and the first was released in July 2020 for medical schools in the USA and Canada. See https://phreportcard.org for more informaiton.

For this upcoming year the founding group are aiming to expand internationally and I am hoping that medical schools across the UK will enrol. I have already had interest from several medical students wanting to lead this at their instituion. In the US most of the questionnaire completion was done by a small team of students interested in sustainable healthcare at each university, liaising with faculty for support and additional information. After completion faculty gives approval of the final report's 'score' before submission and this is also an opportunity to discuss strengths and weaknessess of the medical school and potential areas to implement imporvement, some of which may be very simple.  

At this stage I am looking for anyone potentially interested in leading this at their university within the UK (doesn't necessarily have to be medical students) so that I can give you further information. The metrics of the report are currently being refined based on feedback after their first year and to align with new literature. The questionairre therefore will be ready to roll out about November but it would be fantastic if we have teams ready to start at that stage.

Please email me at hannah.chase@gtc.ox.ac.uk if you interested in being involved. If I already have someone signed up at your university I will put you in touch too. Looking forward to hearing from you,

Hannah Chase