Succeed in Medicine

EP459 - Healing the Planet: Climate-Conscious Healthcare with Dr. Sheetal Rao

29min | 04/29/2025

Description

Sponsored by: Set For Life

Set For Life Insurance helps doctors safeguard their future with True Own Occupational Disability Insurance. A single injury or illness can change everything, but the best physicians plan ahead. Protect your income and secure your future before life makes the choice for you. Your career deserves protection—act now at https://www.doctorpodcastnetwork.co/setforlife

____________

Climate change is a growing health threat, and the healthcare sector contributes significantly, accounting for 8.5% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In this episode, Dr. Sheetal Rao, fellowship-trained in climate and health policy, shares her journey from environmentalist to advocate for climate-conscious healthcare. She discusses how personal experiences, like basement flooding due to extreme weather, highlighted climate change as a social determinant of health.

Dr. Rao explains how healthcare’s emissions stem from energy use, supply chains, and single-use plastics, offering practical solutions like energy-efficient practices, sustainable food options, and composting to reduce the sector’s footprint without compromising patient care. She also provides bite-sized actions for healthcare professionals to channel climate anxiety into advocacy, emphasizing policy support and community engagement. Through her nonprofit, Nordson Green Earth, Dr. Rao works to increase tree canopy and green spaces in underserved Chicago communities, fostering health and biodiversity.

Three Actionable Takeaways:

Adopt Energy-Saving Practices: Turn off lights and monitors when not in use, use LED bulbs, and advocate for green building designs in hospitals to reduce energy consumption.
Support Sustainable Policies: Vote for climate champions and support policies that make public transportation, biking, and walking safe and convenient to lower emissions.
Engage in Community Action: Join or start a green team at your hospital, or participate in local initiatives like tree planting or composting to address climate injustice and improve community health.

About the Show:

PGD Physician’s Guide to Doctoring covers patient interactions, burnout, career growth, personal finance, and more. If you're tired of dull medical lectures, tune in for real-world lessons we should have learned in med school!

About the Guest:

Dr. Sheetal Rao is an internal medicine physician at the University of Illinois Chicago, fellowship-trained in climate and health policy and community organizing. She founded Nordson Green Earth, a nonprofit focused on increasing tree canopy and green spaces in Chicago’s underserved communities. Dr. Rao serves on the American Hospital Association’s Climate and Community Health Technical Expert Panel and the steering committee of Illinois Clinicians for Climate Action, advocating for sustainable healthcare practices.

Website: https://hospital.uillinois.edu/find-a-doctor/sheetal-rao
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/sheetalkhedrao
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheetalkrao_md?igsh=bTBnbHk0OGNyem5y

About the Host:

Dr. Bradley Block – Dr. Bradley Block is a board-certified otolaryngologist at ENT and Allergy Associates in Garden City, NY. He specializes in adult and pediatric ENT, with interests in sinusitis and obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Block also hosts The Physician’s Guide to Doctoring podcast, focusing on personal and professional development for physicians

Want to be a guest?

Email Bra...

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Description

Sponsored by: Set For Life

Set For Life Insurance helps doctors safeguard their future with True Own Occupational Disability Insurance. A single injury or illness can change everything, but the best physicians plan ahead. Protect your income and secure your future before life makes the choice for you. Your career deserves protection—act now at https://www.doctorpodcastnetwork.co/setforlife

____________

Climate change is a growing health threat, and the healthcare sector contributes significantly, accounting for 8.5% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In this episode, Dr. Sheetal Rao, fellowship-trained in climate and health policy, shares her journey from environmentalist to advocate for climate-conscious healthcare. She discusses how personal experiences, like basement flooding due to extreme weather, highlighted climate change as a social determinant of health.

Dr. Rao explains how healthcare’s emissions stem from energy use, supply chains, and single-use plastics, offering practical solutions like energy-efficient practices, sustainable food options, and composting to reduce the sector’s footprint without compromising patient care. She also provides bite-sized actions for healthcare professionals to channel climate anxiety into advocacy, emphasizing policy support and community engagement. Through her nonprofit, Nordson Green Earth, Dr. Rao works to increase tree canopy and green spaces in underserved Chicago communities, fostering health and biodiversity.

Three Actionable Takeaways:

Adopt Energy-Saving Practices: Turn off lights and monitors when not in use, use LED bulbs, and advocate for green building designs in hospitals to reduce energy consumption.
Support Sustainable Policies: Vote for climate champions and support policies that make public transportation, biking, and walking safe and convenient to lower emissions.
Engage in Community Action: Join or start a green team at your hospital, or participate in local initiatives like tree planting or composting to address climate injustice and improve community health.

About the Show:

PGD Physician’s Guide to Doctoring covers patient interactions, burnout, career growth, personal finance, and more. If you're tired of dull medical lectures, tune in for real-world lessons we should have learned in med school!

About the Guest:

Dr. Sheetal Rao is an internal medicine physician at the University of Illinois Chicago, fellowship-trained in climate and health policy and community organizing. She founded Nordson Green Earth, a nonprofit focused on increasing tree canopy and green spaces in Chicago’s underserved communities. Dr. Rao serves on the American Hospital Association’s Climate and Community Health Technical Expert Panel and the steering committee of Illinois Clinicians for Climate Action, advocating for sustainable healthcare practices.

Website: https://hospital.uillinois.edu/find-a-doctor/sheetal-rao
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/sheetalkhedrao
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sheetalkrao_md?igsh=bTBnbHk0OGNyem5y

About the Host:

Dr. Bradley Block – Dr. Bradley Block is a board-certified otolaryngologist at ENT and Allergy Associates in Garden City, NY. He specializes in adult and pediatric ENT, with interests in sinusitis and obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Block also hosts The Physician’s Guide to Doctoring podcast, focusing on personal and professional development for physicians

Want to be a guest?

Email Bra...

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

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