The coalition claims climate change has unleashed an epidemic of disease to which doctors must now pay particular focus. What are these exotic illnesses, you may ask? Asthma, heat stroke, Lyme disease, allergies, and respiratory and cardiovascular conditions are some of the ailments listed by the leaders behind the climate change in med school movement. Climate change is really the greatest health danger of our century, said Mona Sarfaty of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate on Health.

Epidemics and disease have existed since the beginning of time, regardless of the political and social context. Imagine how ridiculous it would be to learn that doctors in the Middle Ages were required to pass a test on the intricacies of the feudal system prior to treating the plague! There are any number of professionalsscientists, epidemiologists, climatologists, and so forthwhose job it is to figure out why disease is happening. Medical schools should be focused on thehowof treating disease, not being indoctrinated with politically tinged subjects such as climate change.

When medical schools engorge their curriculums with political fare, it comes at the expense of something else. For example, few doctors now learn anything about running a practice in todays over-priced, over-regulated, and overly complex health care market. If doctors want to learn about operating a practice that can thrive outside of the clutches of insurance companies or government payers, they must learn it on their own.

Organizations such as The Benjamin Rush Institute, which promotes service to patients, not government, have run into numerous obstacles setting up chapters in medical schools. Medical students themselves have too much on the line to speak out. In the words of one student who spoke on the condition of anonymity, business is a dirty word on medical school campuses. Even if there were professors willing to create and teach such a course, the student said, who would hire them or let them teach it?

When they complete medical school and residency,physiciansfeel freer to discuss the narrow scope of their training, one that is hospital-centric. Physicians in direct primary care will tell you they had to learn about this model on their own. Management, negotiation, and finance are rarely covered at the residency level.

When primary care doctors arent taught how to make a practice thriveone that can truly serve patientsthey gravitate instead to fields where their considerable time and investment will pay off. The United Stateswill face a shortage of nearly 122,000 physiciansby 2032, and while the aging population explains part of the scarcity, there is no question medical schools and residency programs need to do more to make medicine an attractive profession.

Todays doctors do not relish spending 18-hour days coding and documenting patient care for third-party payers. They would be much better served by being exposed to new models that work in the evolving marketplace, where technology is changing the face of medicine, and consumer patients demand more value for their buck. Bolstering primary care is key; doctors on the front lines can nip complex and expensive ailments in the bud.

Because so much medical training is subsidized by the health care industry and government, its no wonder they have so much influence in determining what is and what is not taught in medical school. Hospitals, drug makers, and the AMA itself profit from the status quo,and the last thing they want is for doctors to go rogue. Big players, however, arent stuck with the bills from todays astronomical health care costs.

There is no room today in our daunting health care system to be wasting time and money teaching doctors about climate change. As taxpayers and consumers who foot the bills, we should demand medical schools focus on something less worldly but more criticalthe patient.

[Originally Published at the Epoch Times]

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Climate Change Curriculum in Med School Is a Waste of Time and Money - Somewhat Reasonable - Heartland Institute