Teaching sustainable health care through the critical medical humanities.

Many medical schools have started to include the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their curricula. Yet a more radical and transformative approach to this aspect of the curriculum is needed. Despite being hailed as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet”, 1 UNResolution A. RES/70/1. Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Seventieth United Nations General Assembly. United Nations, New York, NY2015 Google Scholar progress towards achieving many of the SDGs has been slow. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, efforts to achieve the SDGs had political contexts involving conflicts over priorities, methods, and metrics. The pandemic brought the SDGs centre-stage as various inequities played out 2 Ottersen OP Dasgupta J Blouin C et al. The political origins of health inequity: prospects for change. Lancet. 2014; 383: 630-667 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (366) Google Scholar , 3 Ottersen OP Engebretsen E COVID-19 puts the Sustainable Development Goals center stage. Nat Med. 2020; 26: 1672-1673 Crossref PubMed Scopus (26) Google Scholar , 4 Sirleaf EJ Clark H Report of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response: making COVID-19 the last pandemic. Lancet. 2021; 398: 101-103 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (54) Google Scholar , 5 Sachs JD Karim SSA Aknin L et al. The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancet. 2022; 400: 1224-1280 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (98) Google Scholar and highlighted how solutions, however evidence-based, are entangled with values and vested interests. 6 Engebretsen E Baker M Rethinking evidence in the time of pandemics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge2022 Crossref Google Scholar