Working Groups and Projects
IDE’s aims and vision are broad and our group consists of a wide range of specialties and expertise within the medical field.
We work within smaller working groups to share resources and achieve goals on various issues affecting environment and health within Ireland.
Anaesthesic Gases
The Anaesthetic Gases working group’s primary aim is to make anaesthesia more sustainable. They aim to create a network for environmental enthusiasts in anaesthesia and to reduce greenhouse gase emissions among anaesthesiologists through safe use of low flow anaesthesia, TIVA, and sparing use of N2O and Desflurane.
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact anaesthetics@ide.ie.
Active Transport
The group promotes the benefits of active transport from both health and environment perspectives and aims to inform the public conversation with evidence-based recommendations for how Irish towns and cities can improve and encourage active transport.
The group was recently involved in a push for cycle lanes between Cork hospitals.
Air Quality
One of our most active groups, this group is helping to have air quality monitors installed in Irish hospitals. It also aims to inform public conversation around the role of air quality in respiratory and other diseases. AS of March 2021, one of the key areas for this group is the upcoming Smoky Coal ban public consultation process.
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact airquality@ide.ie.
Planetary Health
The Planetary Health working group’s primary aim is to extend the work of IDE to include our colleagues in the medical, nursing, allied health, pharmaceutical, management, economics, ecology, and further afield.
The aims are in line with the Planetary Health Alliance including:
- Building community that crosses sectors, disciplines, and generations
- Facilitating the training of the next generation of planetary health leaders through curriculum building across disciplines
- Mainstreaming planetary health science through broad public outreach and direct engagement with policymakers
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact planetaryhealth@ide.ie.
Primary Care Sustainability
We hope to assist community healthcare businesses with the development of a green toolkit to empower individuals to raise awareness and practical goals towards sustainable healthcare teams and premises.
We aim to liaise with other interested colleagues in IDE to estimate the carbon footprint of Irish healthcare and to campaign, educate, and empower primary care professionals to move to more sustainable options.
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact primarycare@ide.ie.
Climate Change Inclusion in Medical Curriculum
The Curriculum working group is a group of medical students, doctors, and consultants who are working towards the introduction of planetary health and climate change into the medical curriculum in Ireland. The group arranged a workshop in March 2020 for discussion around implementation of environmental health issues across various medical schools and specialities.
The group remains largely student-led with representatives from five out of six medical schools in Ireland.
The group recently took part in the Planetary Health Report Card initiative, an international student-driven, metric-based initiative to inspire planetary health and sustainable healthcare education engagement in medical schools. The 2020/2021 report can be found here.
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact medicalstudents@ide.ie.
Green Conferences
The Green Conferences working group aims to implement sustainability at meetings and conferences held across Ireland. Moving forward, our objective is to promote compliance with our ‘Green Conference Tips’ across training colleges and conferences providers/centres in Ireland. The group was involved with making the 2019 DotMed conference a green conference.
Direct Action
The Direct Action working group believes that due to the immediacy and scale of the threats caused by the climate crisis, in addition to ongoing negotiation and lobbying, there is a need for strikes, demonstrations, and non-violent civil disobedience to communicate the urgency of the crisis to the general public and to elicit meaningful change from the government.
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact directaction@ide.ie.
Galway Working Group
The Galway Working Group began organically when local members were contacted by community environmental activists to become involved with the Galway Park City proposal and then ongoing project. It has developed as a way for Galway based doctors and students to learn about, engage with IDE, and to try to promote greater awareness and action around planetary health. This has included presenting at hospital grand rounds.,developing quality improvement projects in relation to waste, and plans for development of a biodiversity garden in the campus.
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact galwayide@ide.ie.
Sustainable Healthcare
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact sustainablehealthcare@ide.ie.
Research
The research group provides a forum for members to get involved with climate and health-related research, share ideas, and collaborate on research projects. One current project is assessing the impact of heatwaves during the summer on hospital admissions in Ireland.
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact research@ide.ie.
Sustainable Diets
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact sustainablediets@ide.ie.
Mental Health and Climate Change
If you have any questions or if you are interested in joining the working group, please contact mentalhealthclimate@ide.ie.