Climate change and health informatics: pilot survey of perspectives across the field

Abstract

Objective: Establish a baseline of informatics professionals' perspectives on climate change and health.

Materials and methods: Anonymized survey sent to 9 informatics listservs March 31, 2022 to April 15, 2022.

Results: N = 85 participants completed part or all of survey. Majority of participants worked at hospitals with 1000+ employees (73%) in urban areas (60%) in the United States. Respondents broadly reported general understanding of climate change and health (51%), but 71% reported unfamiliarity with technologies that could help clinicians and informaticians address the impacts of climate change. Seventy-one percent of surveyed wanted climate-driven environmental health information included in EHRs. Seventy-six percent of respondents reported that informaticians should be involved in institutional decarbonization. Seventy-eight percent of respondents felt that it was extremely, very, or moderately important to receive education on climate change.

Discussion: General consensus on need to engage informaticians in climate change response, but gaps identified in knowledge dissemination and tools for adaptation and mitigation.

Conclusion: Informaticians broadly concerned about climate change and want to be engaged in efforts to combat it, but further education and tool development needed.

Keywords: climate change; decarbonization; environmental health; medical education; medical informatics.