Publications by authors named "Sophie Gepp"

Article Synopsis
  • This text discusses the importance of intersectional approaches in climate policy to address the unique health impacts of climate change on women, girls, and gender-diverse individuals, who often face compounded vulnerabilities due to systemic oppression.
  • It highlights the lack of meaningful gender and health representation in international climate governance, emphasizing that despite some progress, men still dominate decision-making roles in climate policy.
  • The text advocates for promoting gender-responsiveness in climate strategies to enhance inclusivity and effectiveness, leading to more resilient and equitable societies.
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Introduction: A profound transformation of all areas of human activities is urgently needed for planetary health. Developing a shared vision of the future that is grounded in values aligned with planetary health is indispensable in this regard. The Planetary Health Academy is the first open online lecture series in Germany aiming for transformative planetary health education.

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Background: The discourse on climate justice has developed from the theoretical approaches and discussions on environmental justice. A central tenet of the concept of environmental and climate justice is that environmental and climate issues cannot be seen in isolation from issues of social justice.

Methods: A conceptual model was developed on the relationship between climate change impacts, social dimensions, adaptive capacities, biological sensitivity, and health equity in order to systematically analyse climate justice.

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Background: This article represents the conclusion of the updated German status report on climate change and health, which was jointly written by authors from over 30 national institutions and organisations. The objectives are (a) to synthesise the options for action formulated in the report, (b) to combine them into clusters and guiding principles, (c) to address the success factors for implementation, and (d) to combine the options for action into target parameters.

Methods: The options for action from the individual contributions of the status report were systematically recorded and categorised (n=236).

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Planetary health education focuses on the climate and ecological crises and their adverse health effects. Given the acceleration of these crises, nationwide integration of planetary health education into undergraduate and graduate education, postgraduate training and continuing education for all health professionals has repeatedly been called for. Since 2019, planetary health education has been promoted by several national initiatives in Germany that are summarized in this commentary: 1.

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Physicians play an important role in adapting to and mitigating the adverse health effects of the unfolding climate and ecological crises. To fully harness this potential, future physicians need to acquire knowledge, values, skills, and leadership attributes to care for patients presenting with environmental change-related conditions and to initiate and propel transformative change in healthcare and other sectors of society including, but not limited to, the decarbonization of healthcare systems, the transition to renewable energies and the transformation of transport and food systems. Despite the potential of Planetary Health Education (PHE) to support medical students in becoming agents of change, best-practice examples of mainstreaming PHE in medical curricula remain scarce both in Germany and internationally.

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The planetary crises require health professionals to understand the interlinkages between health and environmental changes, and how to reduce ecological harm (ie, ecological footprint) and promote positive change (ie, ecological handprint). However, health professions' education and training are mostly lacking these aspects. In this Viewpoint, we report findings from the evaluation of the Planetary Health Academy, the first open online lecture series for transformative planetary health education in Germany.

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Article Synopsis
  • The German Public Health Service (PHS) faces a major challenge in attracting qualified personnel, a problem that's been ongoing for decades despite public discussions.
  • A survey involving 3,019 students revealed that medical students showed low interest in PHS careers, while public health and other relevant students expressed more interest.
  • Key barriers identified include a lack of understanding of the PHS's role and a negative perception of its bureaucracy, suggesting that improving its image and addressing structural issues are essential for attracting talent.
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Climate change is a multidimensional issue that affects all aspects of society, including public health and human rights. Climate change is already severely impacting people's health and threatening people's guaranteed fundamental rights, including those to life, health, self-determination, and education, among others. Across geographical regions, population groups and communities who are already marginalized due to age, gender, ethnicity, income, and other socioeconomic factors, are those who are disproportionately affected by climate impacts despite having contributed the least to global emissions.

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Background: January 2019, the House of Commons' Science and Technology Committee sent letters to UK universities admonishing them to achieve compliance with results reporting requirements for Clinical Trials of Investigative Medicinal Products by summer 2019. This study documents changes in the clinical trial policies and Clinical Trials of Investigative Medicinal Product reporting performance of 20 major UK universities following that intervention.

Methods: Freedom of Information requests were filed in June 2018 and June 2020 to obtain clinical trial registration and reporting policies covering both Clinical Trials of Investigative Medicinal Products and all other clinical trials.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has both exposed and intensified various challenges for Public Health and the Public Health service (ÖGD) in Germany. However, it also offers a window of opportunity for effective long-term transformation of the country's Public Health system. Against this backdrop, an online survey was carried out among the members of the German Network of Young Professionals in Public Health (Nachwuchsnetzwerk Öffentliche Gesundheit (NÖG)) in October and November 2020.

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Objectives: To assess the quantity and evaluate the quality of policies and curricula focusing on conflicts of interests (COI) at medical schools across Germany.

Design: Cross-sectional study, survey of medical schools, standardised web search.

Setting: Medical schools, Germany.

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Rapid and potentially irreversible climate change poses a direct threat to global public health. argue that WHO should recognise this in the same way as global threats from specific diseases

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