As the global climate changes the relationship between human health and the climate is becoming more obvious, challenging traditional approaches to health and medicine. In healthcare today there is an urgent need to broaden the biopsychosocial lens used often in health care to include the environment. This lecture incorporates clinical medicine and the health impacts of extreme weather events to offer the health - climate relationship as a central element of climate adaptation, a key challenge for our human future. 

About the speaker

A physician and cardiologist with a strong focus on patient centered care with preventative medicine focus. Trained in non-invasive cardiac imaging, particularly non-invasive cardiac assessment. Research interest in health and public policy development, particularly the influence of public policy approaches to health outcomes. Passionate about the social determinants of health. Raised in Melbourne, completed a BA(Hons) in international relations before embarking on Medicine at the University of Sydney. Medical training at St Vincents Hospital NSW and St Vincents Hospital VIC before working as a consultant physician in Wagga Wagga, regional NSW. Medical education and training is a key interest with previous position as Director of Physician Training in Wagga Wagga. Interested and involved with clinical oversight and quality improvement in the hospital and within the local health district, for me some of the solutions in medicine come from improving the structures and systems that are used, and I enjoy being part of that process.

She has a broad interest in public policy from local issues to global challenges. She is a member of ANU Institute for Climate Energy and Disaster Solutions and is Chair of the Commission for the Human Future. Her work is diverse and centres around human health and wellbeing, the relationship between health and the environment and the challenge of climate change. She is a 2019 Bob and June Prickett Churchill Fellow with a project to assess the skills of narrative in medicine, and is the inaugural Human Futures Fellow in the College of Health and Medicine.