GLENVIEW, IL – Vanessa Kerry, MD, MSc, will give the keynote address during the Opening Session of the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) on October 6 in Boston, speaking on the severe current state of climate change and its impact on health.
Dr. Kerry is a pulmonary and critical care physician and the Director of Global and Climate Health Policy in the Department of Environmental Medicine at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, as well as the cofounder and CEO of Seed Global Health (Seed), a nonprofit organization focused on strengthening and transforming health systems through long-term investments and training of the global health workforce. Seed has helped educate more than 42,000 skilled health workers in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa, in service to more than 76 million people.
In June 2023, Dr. Kerry was appointed World Health Organization Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health to advocate for investments to address the growing effects of climate change on the world's health and to meet the growing burdens of disease from climate.
“I am deeply honored to keynote the CHEST Annual Meeting and discuss the profound climate impacts on our health,” said Dr. Kerry. “The climate crisis is a health crisis, and there is a powerful opportunity for pulmonary and critical care clinicians to have real impacts on the global issues that we’re seeing today.”
In 2015, Dr. Kerry (on behalf of Seed) was the recipient of a grant from the CHEST organization to bring critical care training to Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science in Tanzania, which helped create a robust critical care curriculum and a well-outfitted simulation lab for use by both physicians and nurses at the university. These infrastructural and educational enhancements afford trainees the ability to stay in their country to grow their skills and practice in critical care.
In lieu of traditional honorarium for a keynote speaker, CHEST will make a donation to Dr. Kerry’s nonprofit, Seed. The donation will provide scholarships for family medicine physician students in Malawi and emergency medicine physician students in Uganda.
About the American College of Chest Physicians
The American College of Chest Physicians® (CHEST) is the global leader in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chest diseases. Its mission is to champion advanced clinical practice, education, communication, and research in chest medicine. It serves as an essential connection to clinical knowledge and resources for its 22,000+ members worldwide who provide patient care in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. For information about the American College of Chest Physicians, and its family of journals, including the flagship journal CHEST®, visit chestnet.org.
About Seed Global Health
Seed Global Health (Seed) is a nonprofit organization focused on strengthening and transforming health systems through long-term investments and training of the health workforce, founded under the principle that it is unacceptable there are two standards of care in the world—those with and those without access to high-quality care from a skilled health worker. Since founding, Seed has helped educate more than 42,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa, helping to improve health care for more than 76 million people.
About CHEST 2024
CHEST 2024 is the 90th annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians and takes place in Boston, Oct. 6 to Oct. 9, 2024. The American College of Chest Physicians, publisher of the journal CHEST®, is the global leader in advancing best patient outcomes through innovative chest medicine education, clinical research, and team-based care. Its mission is to champion the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chest diseases through education, communication, and research. It serves as an essential connection to clinical knowledge and resources for its 22,000 members from around the world who provide patient care in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. For more information about CHEST 2024, visit the CHEST website, or follow the CHEST meeting hashtag, #CHEST2024, on social media.