Planetary health education in the United States: four curricular models, one goal.

Global environmental crises demand scaled-up investment in education about planetary health. We identified college and university programs in the United States that focus on the human-animal-ecosystem nexus by systematically searching the 2023-2024 catalogs of more than 1000 schools. We identified four frequently-used curricular models: (1) One Health programs offered by universities with veterinary and agriculture schools that emphasize zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, food safety, and wildlife conservation; (2) climate change and health (climate medicine) programs for graduate and professional students at large universities with medical and public health schools; (3) global environmental public health programs focused on pollution and other exposures; and (4) sustainability and health programs emphasizing food security, environmental justice, and other health issues that can be improved with ethical design and engineering. Highlighting the shared goals of these distinct academic models may help make planetary health a more visible area of teaching, research, and practice.

Global health in the age of AI: Safeguarding humanity through collaboration and action.

This opinion article discusses the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on global health, addressing its potential risks and benefits to the field. It suggests that, given the existential risks of AI development, the global health community must contribute to AI-related advances, ensuring health equity and the wellbeing of vulnerable populations. Through transdisciplinary collaborations, robust AI governance, and an emphasis on equity, strategies are proposed to harness the potential of AI to reduce health inequalities and improve wellbeing at global and local levels.

Towards an educational praxis for planetary health: a call for transformative, inclusive, and integrative approaches for learning and relearning in the Anthropocene.

Fuelled by the intersecting challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and profound social, economic, and environmental injustices, calls for new ways to work together for a healthy, just, and sustainable future are burgeoning. Consequently, there is a growing imperative and mandate across the higher education space for transformative, inclusive, integrative-and sometimes disruptive-approaches to learning that strengthen our capacity to work towards the goals and imperatives of planetary health. This educational transformation requires attention to pathways of societal, policy, and system change, prioritising different voices and perspectives across jurisdictions, cultures, and learning contexts. This Viewpoint seeks to explore the developing areas of education for planetary health, while additionally reflecting on a praxis for education in the Anthropocene that is rooted within the confluence of diverse knowledges and practice legacies that have paved the way to learning and relearning for planetary health.

Complexity in Global Health- Bridging Theory and Practice.

Increasingly, health reflects an integrated outcome of a growing globalized system. Economic, political, cultural, environmental, and other global processes profoundly influence how we understand and approach health challenges. As these occur in a webbed, dynamic, and interdependent fashion, health can be viewed as a complex issue. Drawing from this understanding, in this viewpoint, I assert applying complexity theory to produce a definition of the field of global health. Complexity theory tenets such as non-linearity, transdisciplinarity, open-system analysis, and global-local phenomenology can provide a theoretical basis for a substantive understanding of global health phenomena and a richer instrumental approach to global health challenges. Harmonization between complexity theory and global health may provide the foundation to close the health equity gap put forth by the global health agenda.

Introduction to Special Collection on Decolonizing Education in Global Health.

At the heart of the decolonization of global health process lies critical analysis of the interdependent matrices of power dynamics. As characterized by the articles presented in this Special Collection, deep reform of global health can take the form of shifts in leadership structures, priority setting processes, knowledge/cognitive paradigms, power dynamics, financial arrangements, curricular innovation, and policy changes in research, education, and practice. The curation process of this Special Collection was designed to represent diverse geographies, scales, stakeholders, and themes within the decolonizing global health conversation. The unique perspectives of scholars representing the fields of pharmacy, physiotherapy, medicine, nursing, social work, law, public health, sociology, and bioethics are included in the collection. The premise of the Special Collection is the understanding that meaningful progress toward decolonization must come from within the institutions that built the field of global health in the first place, and doing so will require deep reflection on the role different disciplines - working both alone and collaboratively - can and should play to advance decolonization.

Willingness to Get a COVID-19 Vaccine and Its Potential Predictors in Costa Rica: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on morbidity and mortality around the world. As one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions for preventing infectious diseases, immunization against SARS-CoV-2, is at the moment the most effective strategy for controlling the current pandemic. Despite the high vaccine acceptance rates that countries such as Costa Rica have shown in the past, the public acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine is still uncertain. The purpose of this study was to examine adults' willingness to get a novel COVID-19 vaccine and its potential predictors in Costa Rica. We conducted a cross-sectional study comprising a sample of 4717 adult participants living in Costa Rica who participated in a voluntary electronic survey regarding their intent to get a future COVID-19 vaccine. Results suggest that a high percentage (86.1%) of Costa Ricans aged 18 or more would be willing to be vaccinated once a safe and effective vaccine is approved and distributed in the country. Some relevant significant predictors of willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Costa Rica were higher income, being male, work in the health care sector, and having a relative or a close acquaintance diagnosed with COVID-19. Our findings suggest that it is essential to concentrate efforts on the immediate development of culturally appropriate communication, dissemination, and implementation strategies to maximize immunization against SARS-CoV-2 in Costa Rica.

AMEE Consensus Statement: Planetary health and education for sustainable healthcare.

The purpose of this Consensus Statement is to provide a global, collaborative, representative and inclusive vision for educating an interprofessional healthcare workforce that can deliver sustainable healthcare and promote planetary health. It is intended to inform national and global accreditation standards, planning and action at the institutional level as well as highlight the role of individuals in transforming health professions education. Many countries have agreed to 'rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes' to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% within 10 years and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, including in healthcare. Currently, however, health professions graduates are not prepared for their roles in achieving these changes. Thus, to reduce emissions and meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), health professions education must equip undergraduates, and those already qualified, with the knowledge, skills, values, competence and confidence they need to sustainably promote the health, human rights and well-being of current and future generations, while protecting the health of the planet.The current imperative for action on environmental issues such as climate change requires health professionals to mobilize politically as they have before, becoming strong advocates for major environmental, social and economic change. A truly ethical relationship with people and the planet that we inhabit so precariously, and to guarantee a future for the generations which follow, demands nothing less of all health professionals.This Consensus Statement outlines the changes required in health professions education, approaches to achieve these changes and a timeline for action linked to the internationally agreed SDGs. It represents the collective vision of health professionals, educators and students from various health professions, geographic locations and cultures. 'Consensus' implies broad agreement amongst all individuals engaged in discussion on a specific issue, which in this instance, is agreement by all signatories of this Statement developed under the auspices of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE).To ensure a shared understanding and to accurately convey information, we outline key terms in a glossary which accompanies this Consensus Statement (Supplementary Appendix 1). We acknowledge, however, that terms evolve and that different terms resonate variably depending on factors such as setting and audience. We define education for sustainable healthcare as the process of equipping current and future health professionals with the knowledge, values, confidence and capacity to provide environmentally sustainable services through health professions education. We define a health professional as a person who has gained a professional qualification for work in the health system, whether in healthcare delivery, public health or a management or supporting role and education as 'the system comprising structures, curricula, faculty and activities contributing to a learning process'. This Statement is relevant to the full continuum of training - from undergraduate to postgraduate and continuing professional development.