What is planetary health and why is it so crucial to our work as healthcare professionals? – TMA Eco Club organized the workshop. The event, which was dedicated to World Environment Day, was co-led by Maka Maglakelidze, the head of the Institutional Culture Development Department of TMA, and Rishu Shah, a student of TMA. They summarized their experiences and work in this field. 

„I am part of the TMA eco club, and we are in the university, which often emphasizes planetary health and its correlation with medicine. So, it’s really important for us - medical doctors, to know more about this topic. To know how to include it in our day-to-day practices and how to improve our CanMeds roles.” - Rishu Shah, student. 

Within the framework of the meeting, Maka Maglakelidze reviewed the research conducted by her, the main finding of the research was to study the impact of air pollutants on the  Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) exacerbations and hospitalizations Study results have demonstrated that an increase even with a 10 microgram per cubic meter in pollution levels, specifically in Nitrogen Dioxide, was associated with an 11% increase in hospitalizations due to these two diseases in Berlin, a city where air pollution levels were well below European regulatory limit values.

Study -  Asthma and COPD exacerbation in relation to outdoor air pollution in the metropolitan area of Berlin, Germany - PubMed (nih.gov)