Climate change: challenges and opportunities to scale up surgical, obstetric, and anaesthesia care globally

Lina Roa, MD; Lotta Velin; Jemesa Tudravu, MD; Craig D McClain, MD; Aaron Bernstein, MD; John G Meara, ProfMD

The Lancet Planetary Health (Nov 2020)

Climate change: challenges and opportunities to scale up surgical, obstetric, and anaesthesia care globally

Lina Roa, MD,
Lotta Velin,
Jemesa Tudravu, MD,
Craig D McClain, MD,
Aaron Bernstein, MD,
John G Meara, ProfMD

Affiliations

Lina Roa, MD: Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; Correspondence to: Dr Lina Roa, Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Lotta Velin: Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA; Surgery and Public Health, Department of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Jemesa Tudravu, MD: Ministry of Health and Medical Services, Suva, Fiji
Craig D McClain, MD: Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Aaron Bernstein, MD: Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment, Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Climate and Health Initiative, Harvard Global Health Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
John G Meara, ProfMD: Program in Global Surgery and Social Change, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Plastic and Oral Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 4, no. 11
pp. e538 – e543

Abstract

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Summary: Climate change affects human health in a myriad of ways, requiring reassessment of the nature of scaling up care delivery and the effect that care delivery has on the environment. 5 billion people do not have access to safe and timely surgical care, and the quantity and severity of conditions that require surgical, obstetric, and anaesthesia care will increase substantially as a result of climate change. However, surgery is resource intensive and contributes substantially to greenhouse-gas emissions. In response to climate change, the surgical, obstetric, and anaesthesia community has a key role to play to ensure that a scale-up of service delivery incorporates mitigation and adaptation strategies. As countries scale up surgical care, understanding the implications of surgery on climate change and the implications of climate change on surgical care will be crucial in the development of health policies.

Published in The Lancet Planetary Health

ISSN: 2542-5196 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Geography. Anthropology. Recreation: Environmental sciences
Website: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/issue/current

About the journal