Prepare your practice for extreme heat.
Prolonged exposure to extreme heat can cause a variety of heat-specific illnesses, such as heat stroke, and can exacerbate pre-existing conditions such as chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, and chronic pulmonary disease. Extreme heat disproportionately affects low-income households due to the urban heat island effect, disparate access to adequate cooling, jobs requiring outdoor labor, and medical conditions and pharmaceuticals that interfere with thermoregulation. Climate change has significantly increased the frequency and duration of heatwaves. This course focuses on the prevention, diagnosis, and
treatment of heat-related illness at the individual and system level. It consists of sub-sections focusing on: 1. The physiology of heat-related illness and diagnosis and treatment of heat-related illness; 2. Risk factors for heat-related illness at the individual level and strategies for mitigating this risk; 3. Ways health systems can adapt to the risk of extreme heat and reduce their contribution to climate change.
- Describe the pathophysiology of heat-related illness (knowledge)
- Identify heat stroke (competence)
- Describe the ways classic and exertional heat stroke differ in presentation.
- Identify ways to identify and treat heat exhaustion (competence)
- Identify medications that increase the risk of heat-related illness (competence)
- Identify factors that increase patients’ risk of heat-related illness (competence)
- Screen people for factors that increase their risk of heat-related illness (practice)
- Identify community resources to help patients cope with extreme heat (competence)
- Identify toolkits to highlight risks for heat-related illnesses in the Electronic Health Record (competence)
- Identify specific EHR interventions to improve communication with patients regarding extreme heat and prevent heat-related illness (competence)
CME/MOC
CME/MOC Expires: July 15, 2029
- View all content recordings and case studies (viewing one section will give access to the following sections);
- Open and complete the Evaluation/Assessment; and
- Open the Certificate and claim your certificate (print/save for your records).
Authors
Erin N. Marcus, MD, MPH, Professor of Clinical Medicine
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Mehul Tejani, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
This activity is FREE for SGIM/ACLGIM Members.
The price for non-members is $25.00
