Doctors from hospitals across Boston are meeting next week to discuss the impacts of climate change on health care.
The Climate Crisis and Clinical Practice Symposium is being held on February 13, and will address climate impacts that health care providers may experience at the bedside. That includes how hospitals deal with more frequent power outages during increasingly common extreme weather, or supply shortages after storms.
After Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, for example, many hospitals ran into shortages of intravenous fluid bags.
Dr. Renee Salas works in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Mass General, and is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.
She says health care providers will also need to be ready to face more patients who suffer from allergies, as seasons lengthen.
More hot weather, both during the day and at night, will also increase the number of patients who seek medical attention during the warm months, she says.
Next week’s symposium will be hosted by Harvard’s Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, the New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard Global Health Institute, and Harvard Medical School.
