Medicine for a Changing Planet: Online Clinical Cases in Planetary Health and Infectious Diseases

Planetary health and One Health have become key concepts in public health, scientific, and veterinary training, yet these concepts remain incompletely integrated into clinical medical education. Recognizing this gap, we created a free online curriculum called “Medicine for a Changing Planet,” geared towards training the next generation of health professionals in clinical skills to detect and manage the impacts of global and local environmental change on their patients. Using a case conference-style format familiar to medical trainees, we created 11 clinical case studies teaching both planetary health concepts and clinical competencies, leveraging Bloom’s Taxonomy. Here we describe the creation of these clinical cases, highlighting those centered on emerging infectious diseases that teach clinical skills related to the human-animal interface, globalization, and climate change. The online cases have been visited by over 4,000 unique users from 99 countries, piloted with residency and medical school programs, and made available for CME credit.