Climate change | Klinik für Anästhesiologie und Intensivmedizin

Klinik für Anästhesiologie und Intensivmedizin

TUM Klinikum Rechts der Isar

Workgroup Climate Change

„Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century“ (Costello et al., “Managing the health effects of climate change”, The Lancet, 2009)

Wissenschaftliche Arbeitsgruppen

Numerous medical organisations consider climate change the single largest medical emergency today. Together, they have decided to take action in order to minimise the extent of global warming.

To contribute to this task, our department for anaesthesiology and intensive care has launched a climate change work group. Its aim is to make health care as environmentally sustainable as possible, without compromising on quality.

To achieve this, we examine the environmental footprint of various common medical practices, techniques and agents, so that this aspect can be taken into consideration when weighing up different options in day-to-day patient care. We hope that our anaesthesiology department can serve as a prototype for others in this regard. Beyond that, we are also aiming to put our hospital on the path to carbon neutrality through interdepartmental projects. To ensure that future health care professionals are made aware of the challenges posed by climate change, and learn how they can play a role in managing them, we are looking to integrate climate change topics into the medical curriculum at TUM.

Another area of focus for our climate change work group concerns the role that we as medical doctors can and should play in a society facing climate change. For example, we are currently investigating the potential for divestment of German physicians’ pension funds.
We are in the process of initiating co-operations with similar groups in Germany and abroad, and look forward to getting in touch.

Co-workers:

Adrian Baumann
Neal Conway
Dr. Charlotte Lingg
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Schneider

Co-operations:

Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung
Institut für Geschichte und Ethik in der Medizin, Technische Universität München
Hochschule Darmstadt, Fachbereich Wirtschaft
Technische Universität Berlin, Fakultät Wirtschaft & Management

Publications:

Schulz, CM. Die Anlagestrategien der Deutschen Ärzteschaft beruhen auf Grundannahmen, die nicht mehr gültig sind. Ärztliche Psychotherapie, 17(1), 40–45. 2022. https://doi.org/10.21706/aep-17-1-40

Mezger NCS, Thöne M, Wellstein I, Schneider F, Litke N, Führer AG, Clare C, Kantelhardt EJ. Klimaschutz in der Praxis – Status Quo, Bereitschaft und Herausforderungen in der ambulanten Versorgung.
Z. Evid. Fortbild. Qual. Gesundh. wesen (ZEFQ).2021; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.zefq.2021.08.009

Baumann A, Conway N, Schneider F, Schulz CM. Zero Emission Hospitals: Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften im Gesundheitssektor
Impu!se für Gesundheitsförderung 2020; 107, 9-10.

Conway N, Baumann A, Gucwa N, Schneider G, Schneider F. Perioperative Medizin: Die klimafreundlichere Narkose
Deutsches Ärzteblatt 2020; 117(25): A-1258 / B-1064.

Schneider F, Gogolewska J, Ahrend KM, Hohendorf G, Schneider G, Busse R, Schulz CM. Do private German health insurers invest their capital reserves of €353 billion according to environmental, social and governance criteria?
J Med Ethics. 2020;0:1–6. doi:10.1136/medethics-2020-1063811

Schulz CM, Ahrend KM, Schneider G, Hohendorf G, Schellnhuber H, Busse R. Medical ethics in the Anthropocene: how are €100 billion of German physicians' pension funds invested?
Lancet Planet Health 2019;3(10):e405-e06. doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(19)30189-5