Enhancing Environmental Health Literacy and Practice for Healthcare Providers: An Innovative CME Series

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Ample evidence demonstrates that toxicants and other environmental exposures lead to both acute and chronic health conditions. This proposal is a direct outgrowth of our experience with a community heavily exposed to chemical toxicants. We have demonstrated significant adverse health outcomes associated with this exposure. However, many community members report a lack of knowledge and skills among their healthcare providers to address their exposure- related health risks. These reports are consistent with documentation that healthcare providers (HCPs) rarely address environmental concerns with patients and report a lack of knowledge and ability regarding these patient concerns. These knowledge and practice gaps are not surprising since few nursing or medical schools include environmental health training in their curricula. As such, there is a critical need to expand healthcare provider training in environmental health. To address this critical need, we will develop an innovative continuing medical education (CME) series. The innovation is two-fold. First, we will partner with impacted community members to develop patient-centered and community-centered material, focusing on lived experiences of community members and their healthcare providers. Second, we will utilize interactive and engaging tools to facilitate learning and integration into practice. The series will be titled “Understanding and mitigating the impact of environmental chemicals on the health of your patients.” We will design CME learning experiences that are both evidence-based and informed by years of online teaching experience. To ensure the relevance of the content to patients and HCPs, members of communities affected by endocrine-disrupting chemicals and HCPs in these communities will be involved throughout the entire cycle of course design, development, piloting, and evaluation. Additionally, their voices and stories will be featured in images, audio, and video assets in the course. This Phase One SBIR grant will develop and design the first module of the CME series titled “How Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals from the Environment act as Uncontrolled Medicine in Your Patients.” We will also develop pocket guides, job aids, and infographics that can be easily downloaded to assist in translating learning to clinical practice. Pilot testing for usability and scalability will also be completed. This project will generate an engaging, easily-accessible, informative course to introduce HCPs to important environmental health concepts related to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which will provide HCPs with the ability to address patients’ health concerns. If successful, this project will improve health outcomes and save lives by giving healthcare providers the knowledge and tools to protect their patients from preventable impacts of environmental exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals.