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Professional Responsibilities for Planetary Health Stewardship
Robert McLean1, Hardeep Singh2
1Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Journal of General Internal Medicine
|July 27, 2025
Summary
Physicians must lead climate action through proactive planetary health stewardship, integrating environmental health into decision-making. This professional responsibility enhances care quality and promotes sustainability in healthcare systems.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Health
- Medical Ethics
- Public Health Policy
Background:
- Climate change presents significant challenges to global health and environmental sustainability.
- Physicians have a professional responsibility to engage in proactive planetary health stewardship.
- Planetary health stewardship involves optimizing medical decision-making to consider human health's interdependence with the environment.
Discussion:
- Physicians need specific knowledge, skills, and a supportive culture to implement planetary health stewardship effectively.
- Professional societies play a crucial role in contextualizing policies and guidelines within planetary health stewardship.
- Integrating planetary health stewardship can lead to co-benefits like improved care quality, waste reduction, and financial savings.
Key Insights:
- Planetary health stewardship requires a shift from reactive to proactive engagement with climate-related health impacts.
- Physicians' decision-making must encompass social, economic, and environmental determinants of health.
- Healthcare systems require supportive structures to facilitate holistic health and environmental considerations.
Outlook:
- General internists are uniquely positioned as advocates and role models for transforming healthcare systems.
- Widespread adoption of planetary health stewardship can accelerate progress in climate action and environmental resilience.
- Continued education and advocacy are essential for embedding planetary health stewardship into medical practice and policy.
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