Sponsored by the Climate and Urban Systems Partnership (CUSP) of the Franklin Institute, and in collaboration with Drexel University College of Medicine (DUCOM) student Public Health Interest Group and Advocacy Club, the CPRHC received a mini-grant to provide a series of three educational workshops on climate change to medical students at DUCOM. These workshops will provide medical students with the knowledge and skills to effectively communicate the health effects of climate change on vulnerable communities, and ways to mitigate them. Topics will include:

• Climate Change Basics
• Communicating Climate-Change Related Health Impacts
• Heat Morbidity and Extreme Weather Events
• Public Health Emergency Preparedness
• Air Quality, the Built Environment, and Asthma

The series will feature faculty from across Drexel, including DUCOM, the Dornsife School of Public Health, the College of Engineering, and the College of Arts and Sciences. Each of the three workshops will include a brief didactic overview of an issue related to climate change. Students will then work in small groups to develop educational materials with targeted, accessible messaging for high risk populations, with information regarding protective behaviors to mitigate health risks. At the end of each seminar, students will have created a core list of health recommendations that can be used during patient interactions, group educational programs, and as the basis for pamphlets, flyers and other enduring materials.

Physicians can be trusted leaders in addressing climate change. This series is intended to provide students with the knowledge and skills to effectively communicate the health effects on vulnerable communities, and ways to mitigate them. The series is sponsored by the Climate and Urban Systems Partnership, led by the Franklin Institute with support from the National Science Foundation.