Jeremy

Hess

MD, MPH

biography

Jeremy Hess, M.D., M.P.H., is a board-certified emergency medicine physician working clinically at Harborview Medical Center. He is also a Professor in both the UW Department of Emergency Medicine as well as Environmental and Occupational Health Science at the UW School of Public Health. Dr. Hess is passionate about taking excellent care of patients who are critically ill and severely injured, particularly in the early stages of their illness. Along with this comes an eagerness to coordinate patient care within the comprehensive network of services offered by UW Medicine.

In addition to his clinical and academic work in the Department of Emergency Medicine, Dr. Hess is also passionate and extremely active in his role within Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, focusing on the health effects of climate change. He serves as the director of the UW Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHanGE). Dr. Hess is a lead author on several national and international climate assessments, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation, the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, and the fifth US National Climate Assessment. He is also an author on the annual Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change.

His research interest is in climate change and health, including climate change adaptation in the health sector and health co-benefits of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He is also very interested in advancing public health practice related to climate change through the development and implementation of interventions to reduce climate change risks.

Dr. Hess previously worked as a senior medical adviser to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the health effects of climate change. He is a section editor at the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine and a recipient of the Presidential GreenGov award. His work has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, NASA, the Wellcome Trust, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among other funders.

Education & Training: 

• MD, Emory University School of Medicine (2003)
• Residency, Emergency Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine (2006)
• MPH, Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University (2002)

research & clinical interests

Research Interests: 

• Climate change health impacts, public health adaptation to climate change
• Healthcare disaster risk management, healthcare operations, evidence-based public health
• Early warning systems, health effects of heat exposure

publications