Singapore rolls out world’s first advanced degree in sustainable healthcare
By Si Ying Thian
NUS Medicine has launched the world’s first Master’s programme in sustainable healthcare, which will entail cross-border knowledge exchange with experts from NHS UK, World Health Organisation and other entities.
NUS Medicine has launched the world’s first Master’s programme in sustainable healthcare. Image: Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine)
The climate crisis is likely to create an additional US$1.1 trillion burden on global healthcare systems, as well as cause an additional 14.5 million deaths by 2050, according to a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
In Southeast Asia, extreme heat is causing health issues such as congestive heart failure, kidney disease, dehydration and dengue fever.
Astonishingly, the healthcare sector emits more carbon than aviation and shipping, Channel NewsAsia reported.
This is why National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) has launched the world’s first Master of Science in Sustainable Healthcare, as well as an Executive Fellowship for senior professionals to tackle the impact of climate change on the healthcare sector.
NUS Medicine announced the launch of these courses at the COP29 climate summit in Baku, Azerbaijan, on November 18.
The programmes are led by the Centre for Sustainable Medicine (CoSM) and were launched earlier this year. The centre is located within NUS Medicine and is dedicated to decarbonising healthcare and developing climate-resilient solutions.
Cross-border exchange with NHS UK
The students will be taught by CoSM’s faculty, as well as experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans frontières) and medical journal Lancet.
CoSM’s director, Professor Nick Watts, was previously the Chief Sustainability Officer of the National Health Service in the UK (NHS), and led the NHS’ journey to become the world’s first net zero health system.
Other faculty members conducting the programmes include clinicians involved in low-carbon and circular economy projects in the healthcare sector.
Students will participate in a knowledge exchange programme with other clinical fellows from Singapore, NHS UK, and the US.
“Graduates of the programmes will also have the opportunity to collaborate with or be mentored by an international network of healthcare sustainability champions and draw on real-world experiences to guide their decarbonisation efforts within existing organisations and future vocations,” stated NUS’ official press release.
When it comes to tackling the effects of climate change on healthcare, Professor Watts highlighted two critical factors that healthcare professionals would need to manage.
One is to ensure that patients are protected from the devastating impact of the climate crisis.
The second factor is that health systems need to be transformed to deliver care in a more sustainable way, ranging from the surgeon’s scalpel to the general practitioner’s online clinic.
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Programme details
The one-year programmes will commence from August 2025 and will be held in-person at the NUS medical school.
The curriculum is designed to train early-career professionals and graduates with exposure to the healthcare or sustainability sector in what NUS Medicine terms “climate-smart healthcare”.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has defined climate-smart healthcare as low-carbon, resilient health systems that align with the ambitions of the Paris Agreement, as well as realise the health benefits and cost-savings of a sustainable, low-carbon health system.
“Core modules cover practical skills such as conducting life cycle assessments, strategies to manage the low-carbon transition in healthcare and the application of ISO14040 standards,” stated its official press release.
ISO14040 is an international standard that assesses the environmental aspects of a product or service in its entire life cycle stages.
Focusing on practical application, the programme will include capstone projects that allow students to apply the knowledge they have gained in real-world settings.
Students will also be given the flexibility to customise their own learning pathways with electives.
Some of the electives include evidence-informed practice and policies in healthcare, programme evaluation in health, climate and environmental science, advanced quantitative and qualitative research methods, and health system operations and management.
Singapore public healthcare cluster National University Health System (NUHS)’s Chief Executive, Prof Yeoh Khay Guan, said the new programmes will help “build the capability we urgently need in healthcare [and] engender a culture of sustainability in the way we care for our patients.”
A few months ago, National Healthcare Group (NHG), a public healthcare cluster in Singapore, also launched a training academy focused on equipping healthcare professionals with sustainability skills.
“[Healthcare professionals] will be trained in areas like the redesign of processes to be less wasteful and better serve patients, the technicalities of measuring carbon footprint, and the deployment of sustainable materials in the healthcare sector,” reported The Straits Times.
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