Planetary Health Education for Primary Care is theme of a recent article publication at Lancet

Planetary Health challenges are rising and primary healthcare professionals should be prepared for dealing with it. In February 2023, the article “An international planetary health for primary care massive open online course” was published by Floss et al. at Lancet Planetary Health and analyzed the MOOC Planetary Health for Primary Care created by WONCA Environment and Telessaúde-RS. 

The publication argues that cost-free, accredited planetary health education for primary care practitioners, like the MOOC, should be provided as a public good that also fulfils individual professionals. The course was written collaboratively by many authors, committed family doctors and other health professionals from all regions of the world, so there are different world perspectives united in the material.

The authors also argue that: “targeting primary care practitioners is important since primary care will be the first line of response for people seeking care when environmental change, destruction, and pollution intensify intersecting risks such as disasters, extreme temperatures, zoonotic disease, and food insecurity.”

It also describes the importance of de-commodify planetary health education, and the emphasis of the principle of education as a public good. The article is open and free to access. 

A big thanks by the authors to the WONCA community that helped it happen specifically to the WONCA Environment group. 


Reference: 

Floss, M., Abelsohn, A., Kirk, A., Khoo, S.-M., Saldiva, P. H. N., Umpierre, R. N., McGushin, A., & Yoon, S. (2023). An international planetary health for primary care massive open online course. The Lancet Planetary Health, 7(2), e172–e178. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00307-2