In March 2023, we held a gathering to meet each other and hear about updates from all around the world after our annual meeting this past November. Our topic for discussion was exploring the health co-benefits of reconnecting with nature, especially forests.

Speakers included:
- Gloria Blaise: PhD student at Cornell University studying the benefits of agroforestry initiatives in Haiti - Alex Gesse: director of the Forest Therapy Hub
- Erica Timko Olson: clinical professor at University of Minnesota and researcher on forest bathing

Find the recording here (available until July 17, 2023).

(Image: by Atrakor Studio on Flickr)

In November 2022, we held a side session at the Planetary Health Annual Meeting held in Boston, MA, USA to highlight the latest findings of clinicians’ attitudes towards climate change, connections with the related fields of lifestyle medicine and integrative health, lessons learned from implementing “one minute for the planet” in a rural Brazilian clinic, and the benefits of clinicians prescribing time in nature for their patients.

Our speakers included:
- Kristin K. Raab, MPH, MLA: Minnesota Department of Health Climate & Health
Program/Environmental Impacts Analysis Unit
- Enrique Falceto de Barros, MD: family doctor in Brazil, past chair of the Working Party on the Environment of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA)
- Roberto de Almeida, MD: director of the Ideia Ambiental Institute (NGO committed to promote planetary health)
- Vanessa Goes, MSc: integrated health professional, food sciences PhD student
- Melissa Lem, MD, CCFP, FCFP: President-elect of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE), director of PaRx (Park Prescriptions), family physician in Vancouver area

You may find an academic conference report summarizing this session and providing concrete tips that you can implement today here.

In August 2022, we held "The Depth and Breadth of our Clinician Community: The Importance of Working Together for Planetary Health," in which we met as a community to highlight the roles of Indigenous and other traditional healers, especially in the Amazon region. There was no recording, but please reach out if you're interested in finding out more.

(Photo by Ivars Utināns on Unsplash)

February 2022 Community Call: During this engaging webinar and discussion, we had speakers discuss how to mainstream planetary health in healthcare settings around the world, with some time at the end for live Q&A.

Here's the slides and recording.

Our speakers were: 

• Todd Sack, MD: Editor of My Green Doctor. He lectures on environmental sustainability and climate change preparedness for offices, clinics, and other outpatient centers. My Green Doctor provides free online materials to support and promote office green action.
• Amy Collins, MD: Senior Clinical Advisor for Physician Engagement, Health Care Without Harm. Health Care Without Harm works to transform health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability and a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice.
• We also heard a bit about and Nurses Drawdown: a project of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments and Project Drawdown, consisting of a coalition of nurses from around the world taking action in the key areas of energy, food, mobility, gender equity, and nature-based solutions. 

Links from the call:

• Planetary Health Education Framework
• Sao Paulo Declaration (a multi-stakeholder call to action co-created by the global planetary health community)
• Sustainable Healthcare networks (online discussion forums for all healthcare professionals)
• Project Drawdown video 
• Greener Practice (a primary care climate and sustainability network based in the UK)
• More resources here at Columbia’s Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education
• Materials to learn how to communicate climate change from Dr. Ed Maibach at George Mason University

June 2021 Community Call: During this highly interactive meeting we launched the following C4PH "Pathways of Action" to guide our engagement outside of community calls:

1. Sustainable Practices: Opportunities to reduce the footprint of our clinics, hospitals, and practices
2. Emerging Trends and Knowledge: Detecting environmental change as a driver in changing patterns of clinical cases
3. Public Communications and Storytelling: Using our role as trusted messengers to convey how to improve personal and planetary health
4. Advocacy and Movement Building: working with others to organize, build movements, and take collective action

You can find the recording here and slides here.

We were also present at the 2021 Planetary Health Annual Meeting with our satellite event on April 25th, 2:30 pm-4:00 pm EDT! This workshop explored the role of trusted thought leadership and how the public’s trust can be leveraged to promote the transformation of human behaviors to improve not only human health but the health of the planet. Please see this link for our recording and join our online community on Hylo here!

The workshop included:

• The evidence behind health care providers as a trusted source
• Drawdown and emphasis on scaling solutions through trusted sources
• The Great Transition and an opportunity to transform health care
• Introduction of patient-facing materials in the Planetary Health “seedbox”
• Tailoring conversations and materials for different ages, education, languages, geographies
• Regional Hub involvement in patient education
• Audience participation (Breakout rooms)
• Next steps for C4PH
• New C4PH engagement pathways such as individual PHA membership and the new Online Members Community on Hylo

January 2021 Community Call: We had a great time being inspired by the youth and hearing the latest research on the connections between child health and nature.

• Recording & Slides: In case you want to watch a recording, you can find the Zoom link here. Slides from the call: the Kitbag PowerPoint can be found here, Dr. Cathy Jordan's slides here, and Nathan and Nightingale's presentation here.
• Get more involved or learn more: CHIP (Child Health is Planetary Health): To contact the CHIP team to become more involved in this exciting new initiative, please email childandplanet@gmail.com. 

Our third Clinicians Community Call was on October 23rd, 2020 at 11am EDT. It started with a recap of our previous interactive call on designing patient materials and featured four amazing speakers from a wide range of backgrounds who are leaders in planetary health: Dr. Mary Jo Kreitzer, founding director of the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota, Jonathan Jennings and Dr. Alvi Muldani of the U.S. and Indonesian leadership teams at Health in Harmony and ASRI, and registered dietician, Lily Correa, from the Plant-based Lifestyle Medicine Clinic atAmerica's oldest public hospital, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. Participants had the chance to discuss what they heard and how to implement planetary health in their own lives in small breakout rooms.

We recorded the meeting (except the breakout rooms), which is available here. The corresponding slides are available to view here. 

Our second Clinicians Community Call was on July 29th, 2020 at 12pm EDT. It focused on ideas about how we can best educate patients on planetary health concepts, including those related to COVID-19, as we begin a project to create patient-facing materials. Participants had the chance to co-create their ideas and designs for patient-facing materials in small breakout rooms.

We recorded the first part of the Zoom meeting (before we split up into smaller breakout rooms), which is available here. The corresponding slides are available to view here. The breakout rooms could not be recorded, unfortunately, but notes from our breakout room report back discussion can be found here.

Our first ever Clinicians Community Call was on May 22nd, 2020 at 12:00pm EDT. This call was open to everyone, but focused on people who provide healthcare for individuals and communities. This includes physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, midwives, dietitians, traditional healers, community health workers, mental health and social workers, and anyone who puts the health of both people and planet at the center of their purpose and practice.

This call featured a short presentation by the C4PH team and Dr. Carlos Faerron Guzmán, Associate Director of the PHA and Director of the InterAmerican Center for Global Health (CISG) based in Costa Rica. Dr. Faerron Guzmán discussed planetary health in today's times and his thoughts what on it means to be a planetary health clinician. This presentation was followed by space to speak together as a community.  

The slides can be found here, and the most important parts of the recording here.