Briefly describe your profession:
The link between medicine, GDAs and end users and digitization is medical and health informatics. Developments such as HIS, digital health documentation, telehealth, health apps on topics such as fitness, well-being or monitoring of vital data are part of the core business, as is digital support for relevant health topics of tomorrow. Targeted knowledge transfer (health empowerment) as well as the use of serious games round off the sphere of activity.
Where does the topic of sustainability affect you most in your daily work? / Where do you see the intersection between sustainability and your profession? (Specify SDGs of interest)
In the digital transformation or digitization of healthcare, there can be no sustainable further developments without the topics of climate change, climate protection and climate adaptation. Higher, faster, further are technically possible, but you have to ask yourself whether this is the way in terms of sustainability and also technology ethics. Medical informatics, eHealth or mHealth are incorrectly implemented and applied “resource guzzlers” and not a panacea for sustainability – but they have potential when you consider aspects such as hardware generation and circular economy, energy generation and responsible use. However, students must be shown this information during their training in order to later become mature and competent developers who also consider resource conservation – keyword Green IT in Healthcare.
A second interesting aspect is the interaction “mental health and climate change” from several perspectives: on the one hand, nature and the experience of nature in the sense of nature-based therapy is an important factor for mental health (e.g. stress, burnout, depression, etc.) but on the other hand, climate change and the associated fears and worries are a driver of mental health problems. These interactions and at which points digital assistance can support are new, exciting core aspects of my research activities, which I also pass on to my students.
Do you know a best practice example?
There are some ideas worldwide to bring the topics together; For example, Health Science offers a free training programme “Climate Change and human Health ECHO” as part of the ECHO project, which takes place online. Within this framework, content is prepared and offered for GDAs in order to raise awareness of the topic of sustainability.
National and international networks such as the idea behind Health4Future should also be emphasized, as the health profession has the drive to approach the topic and make health greener together.
The effects of IT on the climate are also increasingly being discussed in the field of Eng&IT and the Information Technologies degree programme and discussed in courses (e.g. Current IT Trends: Digitization – Climate Sinners or Future Opportunity). But fundamentally, there is still a lot of work to be done..
What do you think needs to be done?
Patient and professional empowerment. You have to create awareness and offer practicable and low-threshold solutions whose benefits are recognizable and easy to implement. Knowledge about the effects of health care and one’s own profession on the climate should be basic knowledge and should be anchored in the curricula. Only then will the sector be able to consider further measures at all.