Equitable Access to Healthy Diets: Nutrition-Based Interventions of the Healthy Life Project and Trends in Dietary Risk Factors in the Republic of Moldova

## **Teaching Planetary Health at the Faculty of Medicine of Geneva: A Student-Led Initiative**

**Cora Greipl, Estelle Delamare, Leo Peterschmitt, Johanna Sommer, and Yves-Laurent Jackson** Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

Climate change could cause 250,000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050, making it one of the significant public health issues and forcing healthcare systems to adapt. Currently, no specific training is integrated into the pre-graduate medical curriculum in Geneva. This project, initially led by students and supported by the medical faculty and teachers, aims to set up a longitudinal curriculum in planetary health. The project included several components: a) an online questionnaire on the faculty's students' knowledge of the links between health and the environment and b) an analysis of the pre-existing curriculum to identify courses related to planetary health, as well as the PROFILES catalog of training objectives. A total of 240 (18%) students responded to the questionnaire. The results showed that 13.3% of them thought they were sufficiently informed about the links between health and the environment and that over 80% would find it useful to introduce teaching on this topic. Analysis of the curriculum identified 23 courses with learning objectives related to global health but which were not cited as such. What is more, the issue of climate change is never addressed in the curriculum.

These facts prompted the Dean's Office to set up a joint working group of students and teachers, which defined some thirty learning objectives labeled "planetary health" and to integrate a new "planetary health" longitudinal curriculum into the pregraduate medical studies, addressing 3 main targets: 1. Threats to human health from climate change and global changes, 2. Environmental impact of the health system and the adaptations to be implemented, 3. Role of the physician in addressing these threats: prevention and health advocacy. Discussions within the various faculty committees have also helped raise awareness of this theme among many teachers. This innovative collaboration between teachers and students on an emerging planetary health theme has enabled us to rapidly adapt medical teaching in Geneva. Our next objectives are to continue updating and integrating the formulated objectives and to collaborate with other Swiss medical faculties to invite them to set up similar projects.

Cora Greipl, Estelle Delamare, Leo Peterschmitt, Johanna Sommer, and Yves-Laurent Jackson

Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

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