SUSTAINABILITY AND PLANETARY HEALTH IN MEDICAL EDUCATION: CURRICULAR CHALLENGES IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v23.5546Keywords:
Medical education, Medical curriculum, Planetary health, SustainabilityAbstract
Contemporary socio-environmental transformations, marked by climate change, environmental degradation, and the increasing frequency of extreme climatic events, have produced significant impacts on epidemiological patterns and health systems worldwide. In this context, the concept of planetary health highlights the interdependence between ecological systems and human health, emphasizing the need to incorporate socio-environmental perspectives into the education of health professionals. Thus, this study aimed to analyze, in the scientific literature, how issues related to sustainability and socio-environmental transformations have been incorporated into contemporary medical education. This study consists of an Integrative Literature Review conducted using the PICo strategy, with searches performed in the PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and ERIC databases. Studies published between 2015 and 2026 in Portuguese, English, or Spanish that addressed sustainability, planetary health, or environmental change in the context of medical education were included. The study selection process followed the PRISMA recommendations, followed by methodological characterization and interpretive thematic analysis of the included studies. The results indicate that sustainability has been progressively incorporated into discussions on medical education through curricular analyses, the definition of professional competencies, and pedagogical proposals aimed at integrating planetary health into training processes. It is concluded that the inclusion of these themes contributes to broadening the understanding of health determinants and strengthening socio-environmental responsibility in medical practice, although institutional and pedagogical challenges remain for their effective integration into medical curricula.
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