Impact of climate change in emergency medicine: a narrative review
Claudio Dalla Vecchia, Abdi Sadik, Lelegite Jonah
Abstract
Background and Objective: Climate change is an unprecedented global phenomenon with far-reaching implications for every sector, including healthcare. Emergency medicine is uniquely susceptible to the impacts of climate change, and emergency physicians will be increasingly challenged by the increase in attendances and the variation of disease patterns directly due to climate change. This narrative review aims to summarize how climate change is affecting emergency medicine practise through amplification of climate-related disease patterns and epidemiological shifts for conditions treated in the emergency department (ED) and what potential solutions have been explored to address this issue such as clinical practise improvements, disaster preparedness, public health engagement, mitigation and adaptive solutions. Methods: This narrative review was conducted by the two lead authors through an independent literature review on Scopus, Embase, and PubMed in March 2023. All studies relevant to emergency medicine were included with limitations to English language. Key Content and Findings: The key themes found were: the association between increase in average temperatures and ED attendances; the impact of increase in pollution and ED attendances for various conditions; the impact of climate-related disasters and adverse weather events to the ED; commentaries and reviews of how ED can be affected by climate change and how potential mitigation strategies can be applied. Increased in daily average temperatures, pollution and frequency of extreme weather events has led to a rise in climate-related health emergencies, for various conditions. Multiple commentaries and reviews called for action on emergency physicians and leaders to become more involved in climate change and look at potential solutions. Conclusions: Climate change will inevitably play a vital part in provision of emergency care to patients in the coming future. Knowledge of its impact and the potential solutions to this problem can be of help for future clinicians.