Understanding the Impact of Climate Change on India’s Health Security
As climate change intensifies, extreme weather events—especially heatwaves—are placing growing pressure on India’s healthcare system. To better understand these challenges, the project “Climate Change, Health Security, and Emergency Care in India: An Exploratory Evaluation” was launched with support from a Mittal Institute grant. Led by Caleb Dresser, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Professor in Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the project ran from June 2023 to November 2024.
The exploratory project laid the groundwork for future comprehensive assessments to identify how escalating hazards, particularly heat, affect healthcare delivery in India and identify barriers to implementing climate-resilient healthcare policies, in collaboration with consultants and key stakeholders from India’s healthcare sector.
Caleb Dresser at the India 2047: Building a Climate-Resilient Future convening.
Key Findings: Heatwaves and Their Growing Burden on Healthcare
One of the components of this project was a literature review that looked at existing research on how extreme heat impacts healthcare in India. This review revealed several critical gaps: limited access to data, a scarcity research on heat-related illnesses, and the need for stronger infrastructure in healthcare settings—such as cooling systems and reliable electricity. It also found that healthcare professionals would benefit from more training on how to respond to heat-related health issues.
The team also conducted a pilot survey with healthcare professionals to gauge the real-world implications of extreme heat on both patient presentations and healthcare facility operations. The single-season pilot survey data showed that:
- Heat-related illnesses are a major concern;
- High temperatures are affecting operations in many healthcare facilities;
- Most medical professionals would like additional training on responding to extreme heat;
- Climate resilience hasn’t yet been fully integrated into healthcare activities.
To share these insights, the team hosted a virtual workshop on November 29, 2024 titled “What are the Implications of Extreme Heat for Healthcare in India?” Healthcare workers and public health experts joined to discuss the findings and agreed that climate change must be incorporated into the medical education curricula and become a more central focus in medical training and policy development. They emphasized the need to identify specific steps healthcare facilities can take to become more climate-resilient.
Clockwise from the top: Locations of the survey respondents; Survey responses identifying key factors driving increased healthcare demand during hot weather; Survey responses about healthcare facilities encountering various challenges during hot weather; Attendees at the workshop on heat and healthcare in India.
The Bigger Picture: Investing in Climate-Resilient Healthcare
These conversations point to a pressing need for change: better training for healthcare workers, stronger heat-related readiness and health protection policies, and more investment in healthcare infrastructure—especially cooling resources.
The project also faced challenges. Building partnerships with local organizations took time and led to adjustments in the project’s original objectives. Additionally, most survey respondents were physicians, meaning voices from nurses, emergency responders, and other key staff were underrepresented.
Despite these hurdles, the project has laid important groundwork. The literature review has been developed into a manuscript currently under peer review, and the pilot survey is being used to inform a larger, multi-region study that will gather more detailed, diverse, and actionable data through surveys and interviews with a broader range of healthcare professionals.
As climate change continues to threaten public health, investing in research-led solutions is essential to building a stronger, more resilient healthcare system in India.
Read more about Faculty Work on Climate here.
Read more about Climate Change in South Asia here.