Environment and Health Seminar Series: The Healthcare System's Effects on Planetary Health and its Solutions for a Healthy and Liveable Planet with Dr. Rashmi Chadha MBChB MScCH CCFP (AM) FASAM

When and Where

Wednesday, February 26, 2025 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Speakers

Dr. Rashmi Chadha MBChB MScCH CCFP (AM) FASAM

Description

Hosted in collaboration with the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care 

About the Seminar

Over the last five years there has been a large shift in public recognition and understanding of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Every season the world bears witness to climate-related events that affect human and non-human species.  Canadians have faced significant intersecting environmental and health challenges in recent years, including severe air pollution from wildfires, widespread flooding, and the associated destruction of secure housing. Additionally, vulnerable populations have suffered from premature deaths linked to extreme heat events, such as heat domes, which have highlighted the growing impacts of climate change and pollution on public health. The Canadian healthcare system helps those who are affected by these climate-related events but at the same time, is responsible for 5% of greenhouse gas emissions. Recognising this, local, provincial, and national healthcare are stepping up to this great challenge. The seminar will describe the impact of climate change on human health, explain how human health solutions can be planetary health solutions, and share the exciting actions that are going on in the sustainable healthcare space, primarily from a British Columbia perspective. 

About the Speaker

Dr. Rashmi Chadha is a clinical assistant professor in UBC’s Department of Family Practice. She came to her current professional roles via a two-decade career that began as a family doctor in the English countryside. After moving to Canada with her family 16 years ago, she completed an MScCH in Family and Community Medicine at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health (University of Toronto). She simultaneously completed a one-year fellowship in addiction medicine at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and pivoted her clinical practice from family medicine to addiction medicine. Dr. Chadha moved to Vancouver in 2010 and has clinically worked exclusively for Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCH) in the inpatient and outpatient setting. For the last 10 years she has been a consulting physician with Vancouver General Hospital’s Complex Pain and Addiction Service, one of a handful of Canadian inpatient services that helps patients with pain, mental health, and substance use disorder in an integrated manner. With strong roots to the land from her upbringing in rural England and her multigenerational family background of sustainable agriculture and Ayurveda, Dr. Chadha has always been passionate about our human interconnection and interdependence with the planet. Inspired by the work of many in the planetary health space, she decided to put her professional voice and actions to use for environmental sustainability and cofounded Doctors for Planetary Health in 2020. When VCH made Planetary Health one of four foundational pillars in 2022, she developed and chaired a medical staff association Planetary Health Committee to support education and change within VCH community and acute settings. In July 2024 she became VCH Clinician Education Lead for Planetary Health. Dr. Chadha co-chairs Health Quality BC’s Sustainable Clinical Services Committee and is involved with teaching on planetary health at the University of British Columbia. She is inspired by the exponentially increasing dedication of health care professionals who have taken up the gauntlet to fight for our planet for this and future generations.


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Sponsors

The Collaborative Centre for Climate Health & Sustainable Care 

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