What is the Diploma in Climate Medicine? 

The Diploma in Climate Medicine is a 250-hour continuing education program consisting of five, separate one-week certifications. A carefully integrated curriculum permits participants to have a 360-degree, comprehensive perspective on the health impacts of climate change. Each certificate is offered once per year in conjunction with conferences and other centralized gatherings in the climate and health sector. Completion of all five certificates leads to the Diploma in Climate Medicine and confers the distinction of Diplomate in Climate Medicine and the post nominal DCM.

“The Diploma in Climate Medicine will offer the superlative distinction for expertise and leadership in this novel field.”

Certificate Topics:

• Foundations in Climate Medicine
• Sustainable Healthcare
• Disaster Resilience and Response
• Community Resilience
• Global Challenges

In addition to the primary focus we have three cross-sector themes running through each Certificate.

Climate Equity & Environmental Justice - Hearing from boots on the ground nonprofits investing in innovative solutions to make our communities healthier.

Communication - We'll do a deep dive on how to talk climate and health and give you hacks on presenting complex scientific information, speaking to skeptical constituents, and writing a successful op-ed.

Leadership - How we, as health care providers, can empower wise policy through a basic understanding of machinations of policy creation and implementation.

Each of the five Certificates will offer a professional certificate from the CU School of Medicine and may serve as a stand-alone course in that topic. Participants completing all five certificates will receive a Diploma in Climate Medicine from the CU School of Medicine.

Program Format:

We conduct each course in a hybrid fashion with the following components:

• Virtual Asynchronous Each certificate will open with a series of virtual lectures in the weeks preceding the core instruction week. These lectures and the associated readings will be available in our Learning Management System.

   

• Virtual Synchronous The core instruction week will open with a live virtual presentation from a keynote speaker whose work embodies the week's focus. We will then convene on a series of virtual sessions with presenters who will highlight real world case studies and introduce you to issue-specific tools and frameworks. These sessions include time for Q & A and sometimes small group discussion.

   

• On-Location Following a travel day, the group will connect in person at a site suited to the week's focus. In-person education will be skills-based with methods focusing on simulation, skill development, feedback, and refinement. Sites will include the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Colorado and various “hands-on” locations in the field. 

To receive your certificate and CME credit, all required coursework must be completed in 28 days from the first virtual synchronous session.

Program Outcomes:

Upon completion of the program, participants will have gained:

• Increased understanding of the climate drivers and health impacts (adaptation, mitigation, co-benefits).
• A better understanding of public health services and emergency planning skills as they relate to climate change.
• Broader appreciation of the challenges and changes occurring in clinical practice regarding climate change and health (diagnosis and management).
• New methods for policy crafting and implementation.
• Greater effectiveness in communication on issues of climate and health.
• New perspectives on the interface of climate change and environmental justice.
• Knowledge of relevant concepts and analyses of metrics for advancing health care system decarbonization.
• Greater effectiveness in leadership on climate and health policies.
  

CME Credits:

We are pleased to partner with the Wilderness Medical Society to offer AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Each Certificate will include approximately 25 hours of CME.

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the partnership of the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS) and University of Colorado. The WMS is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. All education content presented in this activity has been reviewed and validated as appropriate in keeping with sound scientific principles.

The WMS designates this educational activity for [credit hours determined by Certificate] AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Each physician should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Please note, for those that wish to claim CME credits, there will be an additional fee of $150 per person per Certificate.

Diploma in Climate Medicine Certificates

*Participation in one or more Certificates is a pre-requisite for Global Challenges 

Course Textbook: Global Climate Change and Human Health (2e)  

Foundations in Climate Medicine

Few clinicians can effectively articulate the dizzy interplay between public health, energy policy, geopolitics, earth science, government, and medicine. It is no underestimation that recent policy has stalled from the difficulty in translating complex earth science into convincing linkages between extreme heat and illness in urban communities; loss of biodiversity and pandemics; or extreme weather and food insecurity.

Climate doctors can fill that gap, crafting patient-centric narratives when sparring over policies with CEOs, community leaders, and policymakers in advocating for climate-resilient policies; credibly addressing deeply rooted environmental justice issues; and effectively leading health systems to decarbonize. This is where to begin — a solid foundation to build upon for your Diploma in Climate Medicine.

Features of this course include:

• Hearing from a truly world-renowned interdisciplinary group of experts like atmospheric scientists, environmental health doctors, as well as behavioral and communication science experts.
• Spending a day at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Mesa Laboratory to meet with world-class climate scientists and practice with state-of-the-art climate models to see how fossil fuel burning or wildfire pollution might impact climate warming in the coming decades.
• Heading into Rocky Mountain National Park to hear from fire-fighters and forest rangers who are on the front lines of defending communities from climate-fueled wildfires.

Course Agenda (2022)

Sustainable Healthcare

The American health sector is responsible for an estimated 8.5% of national carbon emissions. Its full-cost operational footprint is enormous when considering facility operations, sources of energy use, and goods and services supply chains. We need health care champions to implement cost-saving strategic investments through energy and waste efficiencies; "greener" operative practices; healthier food services; and smarter purchasing. All represent tangible opportunities for you to lead as a change agent, both as a heavyweight within the American economy and as a care provider charged with the health and well-being of our communities.  

Features of this course include:

• A deep dive into health care system best practices, with experts from Healthcare with Harm and Practice Greenhealth, clarifying measurement and analysis of “big green” data and implementation of carbon-reducing policies.
• We’ll hear from “best-in-class” health care facilities and speak with staff on how their efforts have impacted patient care. And we will hear from federal policy experts on how the U.S. government seeks to decarbonize health care as a health care service provider, purchaser, regulator, and sponsor of research, education, and training.

Course Agenda (2023)

Disaster Resilience and Response

Lancet has called climate change the “biggest global health threat of the 21st century.” Consider that wildfires are more intense and longer lasting than ever before. We have suffered from months of persistent air degradation across huge swaths of our country, resulting in untold illness. We have experienced flooding, structural damage and displacement from hurricanes, each year increasingly energized from warmer average temperatures. The data tell us that chaotic changes to our ecosystems are undermining healthy living, exacerbating illness, and stressing social determinants of health. The list of climate-related health effects is no different than a busy emergency department triage list: fainting (from extreme heat), shortness of breath (from degraded air quality and increased aeroallergens), fever (from vector-borne diseases), vomiting and diarrhea (from diminished water quality), and trauma (from extreme weather events). Understanding the root causes and responses to disasters will be a crucial part of your DCM experience.

Features of this course include:

• A hands-on, visceral experience of disaster planning and response at a major national training center. We’ll hear from federal policy experts on the nation’s plans for disaster mitigation for communities as well as health care responders. Case studies will include responses to climate disasters from extreme heat events in the Western United States, extreme weather in the Gulf coasts and Caribbean, and threats to major safety net hospitals in New Orleans and New York City.
• We’ll hear from national and regional experts as we interrogate concepts like vulnerability assessments, climate health adaptation and resilience plans, and heat action plans.
• Finally, we’ll connect with environmental justice experts, reviewing and sharing opportunities for clinicians to assist in disaster preparedness and response efforts, in an equitable, inclusive, responsible, and empowering manner.

Course Agenda (2023)

Community Resilience

The economic and structural systems fueling climate change and environmental degradation, also shape our existing public health landscape and social determinants of health. If we seek to protect the health and wellness of our communities, the Diplomat in Climate Medicine will need to be facile in understanding basic concepts of public health drivers and policy at the individual, local, and regional level. Understanding the social and health impacts of innovations and transformational policy in the transportation, built environment, energy, food and agriculture sectors will be critical for the effective health professional advocate. As a DCM, you can be a clarion voice for your community, schooled in these concepts to advocate for and effect climate-smart and climate-ready public health policies.

Features of this course include:

• Basics on public health infrastructure and public health policy, and introduction to regional and national experts in climate resilience. We’ll hear from experts and community leaders working with cities and states on healthy, sustainable, and resilient transportation and land-use policy. Similarly, experts and community leaders will share lessons on how to transform community built environments and public health infrastructure (water, air, energy systems) to be healthy and resilient to the climate demands of the 21st century and beyond. Highlighted case studies will include the City of Denver’s Office of Climate Action, Sustainability, and Resiliency on how they are leveraging the voter-approved Climate Protection Fund to advance environmental justice in vulnerable urban neighborhoods.
• We’ll partner with the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health as we build strong communication and advocacy skills, as well as foster a strong network of clinician allies working regionally and nationally. This will culminate in a day at the Capitol, an opportunity to advocate for a healthy climate with in person visits to the US Congress.
  

Global Challenges

The first four courses will give you a firm foundation on the health impacts of climate change, opportunities and barriers for health sector responses, public health and policy strategies, as well as communication and advocacy skills. This final course will turn its lens toward global challenges and issues of international governance.

Features of this course include:

• We’ll examine how health impacts of climate change are inextricably linked with global carbon economics and development needs. We’ll review the basics of renewable energy sources (wind, solar) and hear from a wide range of experts and stakeholders working on energy transformation policy. Occupational and environmental implications of current and future energy supply chains will be stressed, and advances in sustainable mining, geo-engineering, and carbon capture will all be appraised using ‘just transition’ principles.
• We’ll examine environmental rights, climate justice, human rights, and planetary health frameworks, as we hear from experts in international governance, law, and treatise in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations. We’ll hear various perspectives on how to leverage international environmental and health policy to address complex global health and development challenges like climate-related drought, malnutrition, displacement, and violence.
• Transparent, accurate and comparable accounting of greenhouse gas emissions is the foundation for global climate action. We’ll hear from economists and environmental engineers with expertise in supply chain transparency. Evolving opportunities and challenges in environmental, social, governance structures, and greenhouse gas emission accounting will be reviewed.
  
  

Meet Our Experts

Climate Medicine is a new concept in clinical care, and at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, we are defining it. The Climate & Health Program utilizes education, research, service, and partnerships to help build a sustainable community committed to climate health.

Our goal is to advance the capacity of all health care professionals to effect change in this critical health crisis. We can't think of a better endeavor for our creative energies, educational passion, and professional work. Our team believes the impact of training leaders in climate and health will amplify our collective voice and influence policy change for years to come. We hope that Diploma in Climate Medicine graduates will become effective guardians against the burgeoning threat. We need formidable innovators and leaders on this critical issue for all of humanity.

Our faculty are experts on climate change and human health unsurpassed among academic centers. We not only bring you our best talents but pull from luminaries in the field to augment our faculty.

DIPLOMA DIRECTORS

CORE FACULTY

Kris Karnauskas, PhD, is a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and an associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, with secondary faculty appointments in the CU School of Medicine and the Colorado School of Public Health. Karnauskas earned his PhD in atmospheric and oceanic sciences at the University of Maryland, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in ocean and climate physics at Columbia University. Karnauskas currently serves as section editor for PLOS Climate and recently served on the Scientific Steering Committee of the U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability Program. Karnauskas' lab at CU Boulder explores the dynamics of the climate system toward useful predictions of impacts ranging from marine ecosystems to human health.

Edward Maibach, PhD, is a distinguished university professor at George Mason University and a communication scientist with expertise in the uses of strategic communication and social marketing to address climate change and related public health challenges. His research focuses on public understanding of climate change and clean energy; the psychology underlying public engagement; and cultivating weathercasters, health professionals, and climate scientists as effective climate educators. From 2011 to 2014, Maibach co-chaired the Engagement & Communication Working Group for the Third National Climate Assessment. He currently advises government agencies, museums, science societies, and civic organizations on their climate change public engagement initiatives and serves on the board of the Global Climate and Health Alliance. In 2018, he was appointed a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2020 he was awarded George Mason’s top research honor—the Beck Family Presidential Medal of Excellence in Research and Scholarship—and the Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication. In 2021, Maibach was identified by Thompson Reuters as one of the world’s 10 most influential scientists working on climate change. He has served as associate director of the National Cancer Institute and worldwide director of social marketing at Porter Novelli. He earned his PhD in communication science at Stanford University, his master of public health at San Diego State University, and his bachelor’s in psychology at the University of California, San Diego.

Emily Sbiroli, MD, Dr. Sbiroli is a board-certified Emergency Medicine physician in San Diego, California and a former National Physician Fellow in Climate and Health Science Policy (class of 2022). Dr. Sbiroli completed her residency in 2021 at UC San Diego including one year as Chief Resident. Dr. Sbiroli currently practices medicine at several community healthcare systems in the San Diego area including areas near the border serving at-risk populations. Her current focus includes health care sector decarbonization, the impacts of climate change on human health, and clinician education and engagement with climate and health issues. Dr. Sbiroli has given numerous lectures, presentations, and participated in panels and podcasts for a wide variety of audiences, including students ranging from high school to graduate health professionals, practicing clinicians, and lay audiences on the topics of climate change health impacts and health care sector sustainability. She has developed and led curricula for medical students and physician training programs on climate and health, and participated in California state advocacy initiatives. She shared the stage at the Environmental Media Association Impact Summit, was featured on a podcast with At Home with Drew and Linda Scott, and was also featured on UN Women. She has presented at Health Care Without Harm’s CleanMed annual conference, California’s American College of Emergency Physicians, and FemInEM. In 2019 she was awarded as an inaugural Emerging Physician Leader by Health Care Without Harm’s Physician Network. As a National Physician Fellow, she has partnered with Health Care Without Harm and the US Environmental Protection Agency Climate Science and Impacts Branch.

Kate Weber, MD, Kate Weber is an emergency physician and current Climate and Health Science Policy Fellow at the University of Colorado. She is currently working with the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity through the Department of Health and Human Services as well as with the Denver Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency. Her interests include climate change adaptation policy and as well as hospital system adaptation/preparedness.

Jason Moats, PhD, Dr. Jason Moats is Director of the Texas A&M Health’s USA Center for Rural Public Health Preparedness and a Professor of the Practice in the Health Policy and Management program. Prior to coming to TAMU, he had a 21-year career in various positions with the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX), including as the director of TEEX’s Testing & Innovation Center where he worked on numerous research and development projects including the development of an immersive learning platform for emergency responders; the use of robots during the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the development of an augmented reality platform for search and rescue operations. Dr. Moats has decades of experience in emergency services around the nation, and has been decorated for valor on two occasions while serving as a firefighter/EMT. He has also served in the United States Navy as a hospital corpsman where he served aboard ships as well as in hospitals as an EMT. Dr. Moats has a graduate degree from Texas A&M University and a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. He is a research fellow at TAMU’s Bush School’s Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy, and a faculty fellow with the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center. In 2016, Dr. Moats was recognized with the Texas A&M Regents Fellow Award, the highest award in the Texas A&M University System.

INSTRUCTORS

The inaugural Diploma in Climate Medicine cohort at Rocky Mountain National Park.

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Qualifications:

The Diploma in Climate Medicine is open to United States based healthcare practitioners who hold an advanced degree and licensure in any area of clinical practice. This includes prehospital care providers, nurses, allied health professionals, and physicians.

Enrollment Process:

Enrollment is managed separately for each Certificate. The first step is to join our Interest List using the form below. Participants who have completed one or more Certificates are given priority when enrollment opens for each Certificate. Following a limited period of priority enrollment, we will open the remaining spaces to individuals on the Interest List in order of date added.

Tuition:

Participants enroll in each Certificate separately. Tuition includes instruction, access to the Learning Management System, a copy of Global Climate Change and Human Health (2e), some group meals, and transportation for field excursions.

• The fee for each Certificate is $2,900 (USD) for physicians in residency and other health professionals.
• The fee for each Certificate is $3,500 (USD) for physician participants.
• The fee for CME credits is $150 per Certificate (USD).
• Tuition does not include airfare or lodging.
• Whenever possible, discounted rates will be arranged for associated conferences.
• Scholarships are available (see below).
  

Enrollment Policies:

• A $500 refundable deposit is required to reserve your spot.
• Final balance payment is due 45 days prior to the start date.
• Refunds will be granted up to 30 days prior to the start of the program. No refunds will be granted for cancellations made 29 days or fewer prior to the start of the program. All refunds will be assessed an administrative fee of $50.
• Participants who complete all 5 Certificates will be eligible for a 50% tuition discount on their final Certificate.
  

Scholarships:

We will award three $900 scholarships per Certificate to exceptional applicants who can attest to need. Once we receive your deposit, you may submit your scholarship application which includes:

• A 250- to 500-word statement attesting to your need.
• A letter of recommendation from a colleague in your clinical work setting.