WONCA Working Party:
Environment

Dr Alan Abelsohn (Canada)

Email Convenor

Chair Working Party on the Environment

Alan Abelsohn is a family physician in group practice in Toronto, Canada. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and lectures at the Centre for Environment, at the University of Toronto. He also works with Health Canada as physician-epidemiologist in the Air Quality Health Index program.

He graduated from the University of Cape Town Medical School, studied family medicine at the University of Toronto, and obtained a Diploma in Environmental Health at McMaster University in 1997. He is co-author of: Addressing the health effects of climate change: Family physicians are key, and A Curriculum in environmental health for family medicine for the Ontario College of Family Physicians, and a number of publications on environmental health, including the series Identifying and managing adverse environmental health effects in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Dr Grant Blashki (Australia)

Email Convenor

Secretary Working Party on the Environment

Grant is a practicing GP and an Associate Professor at the Nossal Institute for Global Health; Head of the Health and Equity Theme at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne; and an honorary lecturer at Kings College London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and has served as an examiner in the fellowship exam panel. He is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

His two themes of research are; 1) primary mental health care and, 2) climate change and health. He has co-authored over 80 publications in peer reviewed journals, 30 peer reviewed conference abstracts, 20 government/policy reports, and is lead editor of the text book General Practice Psychiatry which has been translated into Italian.
Previously, he was the lead developer of the Monash University/ University of Melbourne Masters of General Practice Psychiatry for which he received a Monash University Silver Jubilee Prize for Teaching. He has been actively engaged with community work including as Board Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, a clinical advisor to Beyondblue; as a mentor in the Al Gore Climate Leadership Project; as a cofounder of Doctors for the Environment Australia; as a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of the Climate Institute, He was a participant in the Australia 2020 summit. 

In 2008, he was a co-recipient of the Fundraisers Institute of Australia’s Major Grants fundraising award for philanthropic work. In 2009, he was co recipient of an Australian Evaluation Society Award for Excellence in Evaluation in relation to evaluation of major primary health care reforms in Australia.

Region leads

North America – Bob Woollard
Ibero-americana – Ezequiel Lopez
Europe – Roberto Romizzi
South Asia – Sudha Nanthan
Asia Pacific/Australia – Grant Blashki
Africa – Vacant
East Mediterranean – Vacant 

Our mission is to foster the role of family doctors in protecting the health of their patients and communities from the impacts of environmental hazards and environmental degradation, and to promote healthy and sustainable societies at the local and global level.

• To highlight the environment as a an important determinant of health.
• To facilitate networking and collaboration between interested family doctors word-wide.
• To represent issues pertaining to the environment within WONCA and its allied Family Medicine organizations.
• To collaborate with other organisations, both internationally and locally, including WHO, governmental organizations, academic institutions, and the many environment and health NGOs.
• To promote research about health and the environment in family medicine.
• To promote training of family doctors in environmental health, within WONCA, other medical organisations and in medical schools and health systems.
• To develop and promote appropriate literature and other communications media in environmental health topics for family doctors.

Our objectives will be implemented through:

1. Sharing of resources:
   Educational materials and other resources
   Interesting articles on environmental health
2. Sharing activities we are involved in, in our own departments or practices
3. Discussions on topics on environmental health relevant to Family Doctors
   - clinical practice
   - research
   - community involvement
4. Project development
   - educating family physicians
   - curriculum development
   - research

 We also hope to run educational sessions and meetings at as many WONCA regional meetings as we can, and to collaborate with other WONCA Working Parties and SIGs.

News stories

Projects

Greening the doctors’ office/ clinic
We plan to develop a guide to “greening the doctors’ office” for distribution through WONCA, and national colleges. We can use existing materials, including those from the Doctors for the Environment Australia and the Ontario College of Family Physicians. Alan Abelsohn discussed this, in Mumbai.

Climate change and health; The role of the family doctor
We plan to develop a user-friendly PowerPoint presentation, with speaker notes and references that can be used by colleagues in WONCA and beyond. We will develop a network of interested family doctors, in collaboration with other climate change and health medical groups. 

Patients views on GP’s promoting Sustainability
Funded by the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, this s a study of patients’ views on the promotion of sustainability priniciples by GPs. It will be undertaken during 2012, in Australia, and it is hoped that the study will also be piloted in Canada. 

Meetings attended and conducted
Grant Blashki held a very successful conference in Melbourne in October, on Creating Healthy Sustainable Societies. Alan Abelsohn is running a series of workshops on climate change and the family doctor in Canada, at national and provincial family medicine conferences, and gave a plenary on climate change and health at WONCA SAR 2011, in Mumbai.

Diagnostic imaging and radiation safety
Ernesto Mola and Giorgio Visentin (from Italy) attended a World Health Organization (WHO) workshop on Radiation Safety, in Geneva, in September, and Ernesto is now a member of the Working Group for Global Imaging Referral Guidelines through the WHO Global Initiative on Radiation Safety in Healthcare Settings. They presented at WONCA Europe 2011, in Warsaw.

Occupational health
Ezequiel Lopez attended an international meeting on occupational health and primary care, in The Hague, Holland, representing WONCA, in December 2011, and will continue to work with this group.

Research
Our survey on the attitudes of family doctors towards climate change has been completed. The survey results will be analyzed and written up for publication. The group working on this are Grant Blashki and Claudio Villella (Australia) as leads, Gerald Koh Choon Huat (Singapore) and Alan Abelsohn (Canada).

WHO Children’s Environmental Health Training Modules.

We would like to promote training based on the WHO Training Package for Health Care Providers on Children's Health and the Environment in collaboration with ISDE and WHO. Alan Abelsohn met, by conference call, with Ruth Etzel and her support staff, of the Children’s Environmental Health program, Public Health and the Environment, WHO, in January, and we continue to look for mutual opportunities to teach these modules.

What can family doctors do?

Climate change is the most pressing public health challenge of our times. What is the role of family doctors? First ideas come from an article from Australian Family Physician, and a report from the Ontario College of family Physicians in Canada.

Climate change and health. What can family doctors do? (PDF format)
Addressing the Health Effects of Climate Change: Family Physicians Are Key - The Ontario College of Family Physicians (PDF format)

Family doctors can set an example to their communities, and help the environment, by "greening" their offices, and reducing their ecological footprint. We include two useful resources to help you get started in your office or clinic:

Green Clinic Brochure (PDF format)
Des solutions vertes au bureau (français - PDF format)
Greening your Office Brochure (English - PDF format)

Key links on the environment for family doctors

• International Society of Doctors for the Environment ISDE
• College of Family Physicians of Canada, Environmental Health Committee
• Ontario College of Family Physicians, Environmental Health Committee
• Climate and Health Council

E-course on carcinogens
Curso en línea

An on-line course, on taking an occupational and environmental exposure history, related to carcinogens, which is appropriate for use in training in primary care. It is available in English, French and Spanish.

Visit the A-Z resources area for a complete listing of publications