A-ANCEMENT OF THE PRACTICE
DIRECT FROM U.S. EPA OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Elevating the Importance of Environmental Public Health and Partnership With Healthcare Professionals
Wayne E. Cascio, MD, FACC
Megan Christian, MPH
specific environmental exposure. Healthcare providers, healthcare system leaders, and clinical case managers address clinical dis- eases, however, at the individual level and have the platform to provide patients with relevant health information and prevention strategies. Connecting these two fields—the understanding of an environmental public health issue and how it impacts individual health—and fostering cross-disciplinary dia- logue could advance public health protection and improve personalized healthcare. Developing Impactful Training and Resources for Clinicians Understanding this need to connect envi- ronmental health sciences with healthcare- related audiences, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered to develop the following accred- ited courses: Particle Pollution and Your Patients’ Health (U.S. EPA, 2023a; Figure 1) and Wildfire Smoke and Your Patients’ Health (US EPA, 2023b). These courses enable physicians, nurses, and healthcare educators to educate themselves on the health risks and people most at risk for air- borne environmental exposures. Continuing education credits are also available for com- pleting the courses. More recently, U.S. EPA, CDC, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Ser- vices established the Million Hearts Cli- mate Change and Cardiovascular Disease Collaborative. The collaborative provides a venue for healthcare practitioners to deepen their understanding of the threats of climate change and air pollution to heart and vascular
Editor’s Note: The National Environmental Health Association strives to provide up-to-date and relevant information on environmental health and to build partnerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we have partnered with the O ce of Research and Development (ORD) within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) to publish two columns a year in the Journal . ORD is the scientific research arm of U.S. EPA. ORD conducts the research for U.S. EPA that provides the foundation for credible decision making to safeguard human health and ecosystems from environmental pollutants. In these columns, authors from ORD will share insights and information about the research being conducted on pressing environmental health issues. The conclusions in these columns are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the o cial position of U.S. EPA. Dr. Wayne Cascio is the director of the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment within ORD at U.S. EPA. Megan Christian is the chief of sta and senior public health scientist in the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment within ORD at U.S. EPA.
M aking the Connection With Healthcare Partners Professionals working in envi- ronmental public health, healthcare, and healthcare systems benefit from building partnerships and fostering cross-sector and cross-disciplinary dialogue, creating robust networks that facilitate cooperation and coordination. These networks improve the delivery and eectiveness of environmental health, public health, and healthcare ser- vices over time, rather than being limited to reactionary responses during health crises (Deener et al., 2021). The COVID-19 pan-
demic and the recent intrusion of wildfire smoke from Canada that inundated Eastern and Central U.S. underscore the need for such robust cross-disciplinary networks. In recent years, the U.S. has seen many emerging environmental public health inci- dents, including the increased severity of wildfires and exposure to wildfire smoke, drought, excessive heat, and chemical expo- sures. Environmental public health profes- sionals are often on the front lines of discov- ering and addressing these environmental health concerns, including the identification of those individuals at highest risk from a
52
-olume 8 • Number
Powered by FlippingBook