• by Les Luchter , December 11, 2024

Reflecting the headlines, a Wednesday morning panel on “Healthcare in A Warming World,” featuring execs from Amazon Pharmacy and Pfizer, naturally progressed into a discussion of the health of the healthcare industry itself -- from the month-old hot topic of what the new administration may be hatching, to the week-old hot topic of anger against health companies fueling violence.

Speaking just a few blocks from where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down, Amazon Pharmacy’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vin Gupta told the Reuters Next conference that “there cannot be a “false moral equivalence in public discourse,” with “justified anger against the U.S. healthcare system leading to acceptance of violence.” Referring to what moderator Michele Gershberg, Reuters’ global editor of health and pharma, called an “outpouring of angst” on social media, Gupta asked, “Is that type of reaction going to be normed, and are there going to be copycats?”

“All of us are taking a step back and trying to understand what's happening with patients and their experiences,” said Caroline Roan, Pfizer’s chief sustainability officer, adding that “we always do that, but clearly, there’s a larger dialogue that needs to happen.”

Speaking of dialogue, Roan said of the new administration that “We're going to roll up our sleeves and we're going to find common ground. We’re going to work incredibly hard to ensure that the innovative ecosystem that drives vaccines and new medicines is robust and healthy….Then we’re going to work to get these out to the patients who seek to improve the lives of their family members. We'll do that with anybody who has a like mind.”  

For Gupta, areas of common ground include Health & Human Services’ nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s focus on the “chronic disease epidemic.”

“Let’s give him a chance, if he gets confirmed, to actually put some policies into place,” Gupta said. “Power has had the potential to be a moderating influence on people once they actually assume the reins. A lot of us are hoping that that's going to be the case.”

Noting that climate change is greatly exacerbating the chronic disease epidemic (“if somebody is obese with heart failure, you add on air pollution, wildfire smoke or heat, and that person is now manifold at risk of ending up in the hospital”), Gupta admitted that “you say the word ‘climate’ and maybe half the country turns off or rolls their eyes.” But, “if you talk about the health impacts of climate, that actually polls incredibly well. People are willing to hear and receive the message on the ways in which air and dirty water might be impacting their health. There is an opportunity to lean into the health message for climate that I think bridges the partisan gap.” 

Speaking of messaging, Gupta pointed to a recent George Washington University white paper on climate change communication that noted health care professionals “don't do enough communication on the healthcare impacts of climate.”

And not just in the U.S. Healthcare workers around the world, Roan agreed, can educate patients “about the weather that’s coming, about heat, about the drought you’re seeing across East and West Africa…They are the linchpin that’s going to help drive patients to understand the impacts and what they can do to protect themselves and their families.”

Then there’s the media. People are now recognizing that a few days of “exposure to terrible air” can have detrimental long-turn health impacts only because of last year’s wildlife smoke infestation in New York City, “the media capital of the world,” Gupta said. As a result, public awareness of the wildlife fire problem increased, with “a sea change in how we talked about air pollution.”

Another city, Las Vegas, provides a case study in how communications from multi-stakeholders (insurance companies, etc.) can work in a deteriorating environment, according to Gupta.   

With hot nights added to hot days in that city, older people with pre-existing conditions might not be able to cool down, leading to hospital visits for such conditions as heart failure or COPD exacerbation, he said. So, akin to long-established hurricane warnings elsewhere, Las Vegas now has “early warning systems where there's going to be a heat wave here, the likes of which are going to be unpleasant - make sure you're dialed in from an environment standpoint at home, get it as cool as possible, be proactive on your refills, make sure you have a 90-day supply when appropriate.”

It’s not only getting hotter in Las Vegas, but well, everywhere, with 2023 being recorded as the hottest year ever, per Gupta.

“Over the last 15 years during my training, we would have climate health discussions,” said Gupta, “and it would seem we were preparing for some sort of future catastrophe….It’s not existential anymore. It’s here.”