Summary: Universities have a unique opportunity to lead the evolution of disaster medicine by reorganizing their institutional frameworks to address the interconnected challenges of environmental sustainability and resilience. This submission uses the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health and the Planetary Health Alliance as a case study to demonstrate how reframing academic and operational structures can create new pathways for advancing disaster medicine programs. Adopting a Planetary Health framework, the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health has aligned its research, education, and clinical initiatives to address the systemic drivers of disasters, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. By integrating environmental determinants of health with interdisciplinary collaboration, this approach has fostered innovation and expanded the scope of disaster medicine. Key outcomes include leveraging ecological and environmental data for predictive modeling, incorporating nature based solutions into disaster preparedness, and enhancing cross-sector partnerships with public health, engineering, and policymaking stakeholders. These strategies build on the foundation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, propelling disaster medicine into a new era that emphasizes prevention, sustainability, and equity. This report highlights how Planetary Health principles can act as a catalyst for transforming disaster medicine programs, equipping them to address cascading risks and systemic vulnerabilities in a rapidly changing world. By finding “another gear,” universities can drive disaster medicine forward, offering a replicable blueprint for institutions to align their missions with the complexities of a resilient and sustainable future.
Lemon et al. (Sun,) studied this question.