![]() ![]() When patient data are combined with climate-related data, the combined information can predict who is most likely to experience worsening health due to extreme weather and help direct support for patients with substantial climate health risks. ![]() Relevant patient data include residential or work location, race and ethnicity, income, health conditions and more. Such information can be brought into electronic health records, where patient-specific data already resides. They are now applying that concept to climate-related health issues by adding actionable data about climate risks.įor example, geographic information system data, known as GIS data, currently exist to identify which neighborhoods have fewer trees and are more profoundly impacted by heat waves, or which areas have lower elevations and are at greater risk for flooding. This new commentary builds on their 2016 proposal to inform care with "community vital signs," or localized data that's related to nonmedical factors that affect health, which are also known as social determinants of health. "Such individualized health care should also extend to primary care, and be applied to something that threatens everyone's health-climate change." "Precision medicine is becoming increasingly common as genomic data is used by medical specialists to treat cancer and other diseases," explained the commentary's senior author, Leah Werner, M.D., an assistant professor of family medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine. "Physicians have a responsibility to help our patients manage and prevent climate-related health issues."ĭeVoe and colleagues are advocating for primary care teams to use a data-driven approach to help prevent and mitigate the adverse health impacts of climate change, which they've dubbed "precision ecologic medicine." DeVoe, M.D., a professor of family medicine in the OHSU School of Medicine and first author of a commentary published in the Journal of Primary Care & Community Health that describes the new approach. "Climate change is the biggest threat to our health-now, and in the future," said Jennifer E. ![]()
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