VIDEO: Physicians will see more health effects of climate change in practice

In this video, Nitin Damle, MD, MS, MACP, past president of the ACP, discusses highlights from his presentation at the virtual ACP Internal Medicine Meeting on the health consequences of climate change.

“Climate change is real. It’s here. It’s now,” said Damle, who is also a clinical associate professor of medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University and internal medicine practitioner in Wakefield, Rhode Island.

Physicians in primary care practices, EDs and urgent cares will see an increasing number of patients with conditions related to climate change, according to Damle. Some of these health effects include heat exhaustion from heat waves; COPD and asthma exacerbations caused by air pollution; an increase in tick-borne, mosquito-borne and waterborne diseases; food insecurity; mass migration; and the mental health effects of severe weather events.

Physicians have a “significant role” in mitigating the health effects of climate change, Damle said. He encouraged physicians to express their concerns to legislators and the general public.

“We are really role models for society,” he said. “What we say matters.”