Planetary health in medisch onderwijs

Healthcare professionals have a responsibility to protect and promote human health, and thus also have a responsibility to protect ecosystems and to promote Planetary Health.

Planetary Health arose recently in medical education and is growing exponentially.

Planetary Health in medical education should entail three key themes: (a) Understanding of the complex relationship between humankind and nature – the core of Planetary Health. With related knowledge, students can develop the skills and attitude to: (b) act from their healthcare perspective; apply adaptation and mitigation measures; and (c) reflect on and act according to their role within society.

Preconditions for successful implementation of Planetary Health in medical education are a broad support among stakeholders, formal ratification (in learning outcomes, assessments, accreditation), capacity building among educational institutes, resources for education development (finance, time), and transdisciplinary collaboration;

From students to education headmasters, everyone has a role to fulfil in integrating Planetary Health into medical education.

Conflict of interest and financial support: ICMJE forms provided by the authors are available online along with the full text of this article.