This webinar on extreme weather, health, and prevention research is part of the Office of Disease Prevention’s Prevention in Focus webinar series. Speakers include researchers conducting cutting-edge health and extreme weather research and NIH Health and Extreme Weather (HEW) Program staff.

The webinar will highlight research across different dimensions of extreme weather and health. The panelists will discuss the public health burden of extreme weather, the health impacts on vulnerable populations, and the home and neighborhood environments as opportunities for prevention interventions. The NIH Health and Extreme Weather Program and Strategic Framework will be highlighted. Panelists will discuss key areas of intersection among prevention science, extreme weather, and health and explore opportunities to advance research on ways to prevent health threats and harms from extreme weather and protect health.

Overview of the NIH Health and Extreme Weather (HEW) Program
Speaker: Aubrey Miller, M.D., M.P.H.
The NIH HEW Program aims to bolster critical health research, disseminate findings to the public, expand and support a community of practice for all interested in this work, and catalyze interventions that promote health in the wake of extreme weather occurrences. Dr. Aubrey Miller, Co-chair of the NIH HEW Program, will provide an overview of the research, activities, opportunities, and evolving community of practice that this NIH-wide program supports under the leadership and involvement of 17 NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices.

Place, Housing, & Health: Upstream Determinants of Risk From Extreme Weather
Speaker: Daniel Carrión-Adao, Ph.D., M.P.H.
It is often said that your ZIP Code is a better predictor of health than your genetic code. This presentation explores the place-based social processes that shape exposure and vulnerability to extreme weather across populations. 

Cooling the City, Not the Crisis? Rethinking Heat Adaptation Through Prevention Science
Speaker: Jaime Madrigano, Sc.D., M.P.H.
This presentation will review the public health burden of heat and the role of the home and neighborhood environments as opportunities for intervention. A focus of the presentation will use the lens of prevention science and translational research, a methodological tool that moves scientific discovery in prevention science into real-world public health practice, to contextualize what is known and opportunities remain for optimizing interventions to mitigate the health impacts of heat.

Extreme Weather and Prevention Science in Maternal and Child Health
Speaker: Stefania Papatheodorou, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc.
Extreme weather poses growing risks to health during pregnancy and childhood, two periods of heightened biological vulnerability that offer important opportunities for prevention. This presentation will review evidence linking extreme weather exposures with adverse pregnancy and childhood outcomes. Pregnancy provides a particularly important platform for prevention because routine prenatal care creates repeated opportunities for risk assessment, counseling, and connection to supportive resources. The presentation will consider prevention strategies at the individual, health-system, community, and policy levels, including heat and wildfire-smoke counseling, air filtration and cooling, electronic health record alerts, environmental vulnerability screening, cooling centers, and improvements to indoor and neighborhood environments. It will conclude by highlighting the collaborations researchers, clinicians, communities, and public health agencies need to translate environmental health evidence into effective and equitable prevention.