As the Green Movement continues to gain popularity (it seems to be everywhere you go these days) the healthcare industry faces the challenge of incorporating some of this movement’s basic principles into the delivery of care. In the Madison Magazine Sarah Nance discusses how the community of Madison, Wisconsin continues to promote the idea of ‘Green Medicine’.
"Essentially [the green medicine movement] says, 'Here are the basic ways we can stop messing up as a community,'" [Michael] Hernke [a research fellow at the Wisconsin School of Business] says. "It provides for preventative thinking, a precautionary approach for living one's life, to doing business, to healthcare."
"We're trying to bring awareness of how global health relates to human health," [David Rakel, Director of Integrative Medicine at UW Health] says, such as how global warming might lead to the spread of infectious disease, or how we can reduce our toxic impact on the environment.”
"How do we align our health with the health of the larger systems we depend upon?" Hernke asks. "Why do people have the chronic diseases they do?"
"I keep thinking … about health in a very broad way," says Hernke, "and how we take care of ourselves in a way that takes care of … the environment."
Using initial avenues of communications such as the “Green Medicine: Healthy People, Healthy Planet” conference and key speakers (such as renowned Swedish physician Karl-Henrik Robèrt), one of the major focuses is raising awareness of the amount of chemicals that are developed, used and discarded in the environment.
Building on the successes of this effort (major corporations continue to jump on board) it will be interesting to see what additional areas become the focus for Green Medicine. Although there is consensus around the positive benefits of limiting chemical waste in the environment, to what extent will this movement work its way into more controversial items such as limiting the types of medicines or services available to patients, or providing alternative methods of care in a more green friendly environment.
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