OasisLMS

Climate change is a rapidly evolving public health issue with wide-ranging impacts on human health and health systems. This session examines the scientific evidence for climate change, the role of human activity in driving these changes, and the resulting direct and indirect health effects, with a focus on U.S. population health. Participants will also explore the critical role of preventive medicine and public health professionals in climate change mitigation and adaptation through clinical practice, policy, and population-based interventions. This session centers on three key learning objectives: 

* Discuss practical mitigation and adaptation strategies that preventive medicine and public health professionals can apply at the individual, clinical, and population levels.   

* Describe key scientific evidence demonstrating climate change and the role of human activities in driving global warming. 

* Identify major direct and indirect health impacts of climate change, with particular attention to heat-related illness and other population health threats in the United States. 

Polly Thomas is a passionate advocate for equipping physicians with the skills to utilize epidemiologic and public health principles in the realms of policy development and program evaluation. She holds the position of Professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) in the Department of Medicine, as well as serving as a Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Rutgers School of Public Health. She has been part of the NJMS Residency in Public Health and Preventive Medicine (PH/GPM) since its inception in 2010 and has served as Program Director since 2014. In 2021, she collaborated with Dr. Mirela Feurdean to establish a 4-year training program that integrates Internal Medicine and PH/GPM (IM/PM), and she currently holds the position of Associate Program Director for IM/PM. She spent 23 years at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she was involved in defining surveillance criteria for pediatric HIV and in monitoring the positive downward trends in this condition following the introduction of effective prophylactic intervention after 1994. In her role as Assistant Commissioner of Surveillance, she overseen the establishment of the World Trade Center Health Registry, aimed at examining the health impacts on more than 70,000 individuals, including 3,200 children, who were exposed to the 9/11 WTC disaster.

Dr. Thomas has been a general pediatrician, practicing part-time from 1984 to 2023. She holds membership in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Epidemiology, Public Health, and Evidence, and is engaged with environmental health matters through the New Jersey Chapter of AAP.

Dr. Thomas graduated from Yale College and Yale Medical School, completing her training in general pediatrics at the University of Rochester and in epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention EIS Program. She resides with her husband of 45 years and is the proud mother of three grown children and grandmother to three grandchildren.