Toward informatics-enabled preparedness for natural hazards to minimize health impacts of climate change

A call for the informatics community to define priority practice and research areas at the intersection of climate and health: report from 2023 mini-summit

OBJECTIVE

Although biomedical informatics has multiple roles to play in addressing the climate crisis, collaborative action and research agendas have yet to be developed. As a first step, AMIA's new Climate, Health, and Informatics Working Group held a mini-summit entitled Climate and health: How can informatics help? during the AMIA 2023 Fall Symposium to define an initial set of areas of interest and begin mobilizing informaticians to confront the urgent challenges of climate change.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The AMIA Climate, Health, and Informatics Working Group (at the time, an AMIA Discussion Forum), the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI), and the Regenstrief Institute hosted a mini-summit entitled Climate and health: How can informatics help? on November 11, 2023, during the AMIA 2023 Annual Symposium (New Orleans, LA, USA). Using an affinity diagramming approach, the mini-summit organizers posed 2 questions to ∼50 attendees (40 in-person, 10 virtual).

RESULTS

Participants expressed a broad array of viewpoints on actions that can be undertaken now and areas needing research to support future actions. Areas of current action ranged from enhanced education to expanded telemedicine to assessment of community vulnerability. Areas of research ranged from emergency preparedness to climate-specific clinical coding to risk prediction models.

DISCUSSION

The mini-summit was intended as a first step in helping the informatics community at large set application and research priorities for climate, health, and informatics.

CONCLUSION

The working group will use these perspectives as it seeks further input, and begins to establish priorities for climate-related biomedical informatics actions and research.

A narrative literature review to inform the development of a health threats preparedness framework in Ireland

Introduction

Public health emergency preparedness requires capacities and capabilities to respond to a diverse range of health threats. A key objective of Ireland's recent Health Protection Strategy is to enable preparedness, prevention, early detection and optimal response to health threats from all-hazards. We aimed to identify priority areas for inclusion in an evidence-based health threats preparedness framework, using lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, to inform a national health threats strategy and a strengthened emerging health threats function for Ireland.

Methods

We conducted a narrative literature review to inform the health threats preparedness framework development. We carried out literature searches in two phases, from 2017 to 2022, followed by an updated search covering 2022-2024, to ensure all relevant, recent literature was captured. We used a data extraction tool to collate priority areas reported.

Results

Overarching priorities for health threats preparedness are rapid decision-making, an outcomes-based, and ethical approach. Health threats preparedness should include a risk-based, all-hazards, One Health approach, aligned with legislation. Multisectoral partnerships, collaboration and communication nationally and internationally are key, alongside clear governance structures and monitoring and evaluation. Adequate resources are required to operationalize effective and sustainable preparedness. Public health leadership must be to the fore.

Conclusion

An effective health threats preparedness approach is legislatively mandated for European Member States. This evidence review highlights priority areas for a comprehensive health threats preparedness framework. This framework supports the development of a strengthened emerging health threats function in Ireland and may inform other Member States' preparedness.