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Registration is open
Deadline:
10/16/2026
Format:
Online
Term Offered:
Fall
Overview
Health systems protect and improve human health—but healthcare delivery itself carries an environmental footprint. Clinical practices, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, supply chains, facilities, waste streams, and digital services all consume resources and contribute to environmental impacts.
This 3 half-day online workshop brings together Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Implementation Science (ImS) to help health professionals and researchers measure those impacts and translate evidence into more sustainable healthcare practices. Participants will learn foundational approaches to assessing the environmental impacts of health technologies and services and explore implementation strategies for adopting, scaling, and sustaining climate-smart innovations in real-world research and health systems.
Through lectures, case studies, interactive discussions, and hands-on group work, participants will apply course concepts to their own work or to a provided case example. Topics include LCA, human-centered design, implementation science theories and frameworks, hybrid effectiveness-implementation study designs, AI implications and applications for LCA, as well as the climate-and-health funding landscape.
Course Details
Major content areas include:
- How Implementation Science and climate science can work together to advance sustainable healthcare
- Foundations of Life Cycle Assessment for health interventions
- Measuring environmental impacts across the healthcare life cycle
- Human-centered design and framing opportunities for multiple benefits
- Implementation Science theories and frameworks for climate-and-health interventions
- Study designs and methods for examining effectiveness and implementation simultaneously
- Real-world applications of LCA in health-system research
- The effects and benefits of Artificial intelligence in climate and health
- Funding opportunities and the evolving climate-and-health landscape
- Applying environmental and implementation evidence to participants' own projects
Participants will explore examples including medical devices, pharmaceuticals, clinical pathways, energy-intensive equipment, health-system services, supply chains, and waste management.
Schedule
The 2026 inaugural course will be held:
- Tuesday to Thursday, November 3 - 5, 2026
- 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (UTC-8)
- 12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Faculty Office Hours (optional)
Format
The workshop combines:
- Interactive lectures and discussions
- Applied examples and case studies
- Hands-on Life Cycle Assessment exercises
- Small-group project work
- Peer-to-peer learning
- Optional faculty office hours and individualized feedback
All sessions will be held live via Zoom.
The workshop is designed for health professionals, researchers, and others interested in developing and implementing sustainable, low-carbon, or resource-efficient health interventions.
Prior expertise in Life Cycle Assessment or Implementation Science is not required. Participants are encouraged to bring an ongoing project, health-system challenge, or area of interest that they can develop throughout the workshop.
Prior expertise in Life Cycle Assessment or Implementation Science is not required. Participants are encouraged to bring an ongoing project, health-system challenge, or area of interest that they can develop throughout the workshop.
This course requires learners to have a stable internet connection and access to the Zoom platform for synchronous meetings.
All course materials will be made available on the course website. In developing assignment submissions, students often benefit from using websites and other materials from their selected organizations.
All learners who meet the minimum course requirements will receive a formal letter documenting their successful completion of the course, its objectives, and requirements.
Learners are expected to attend all lectures (remotely), participate in all small-group activities, and demonstrate progress on applying concepts to a real-world project.
| UCSF affiliates | Non-UCSF | |
| Graduate students & residents | $500 | $750 |
| Postdoctoral scholars | $1,000 | $1,250 |
| Participants residing in LMICs or areas of ongoing armed conflict | $1,250 | |
| All others | $1,500 | $1,750 |
Applicants will be asked to provide proof of trainee or postdoctoral status.
Affiliation is defined as concurrent enrollment in a UCSF-sponsored residency or postdoctoral fellowship program; registered student status in a UCSF professional school or graduate program; or salaried UCSF faculty, academic, or staff appointment.
The registration fee includes CME credit (if desired).
Major content areas include:
- How Implementation Science and climate science can work together to advance sustainable healthcare
- Foundations of Life Cycle Assessment for health interventions
- Measuring environmental impacts across the healthcare life cycle
- Human-centered design and framing opportunities for multiple benefits
- Implementation Science theories and frameworks for climate-and-health interventions
- Study designs and methods for examining effectiveness and implementation simultaneously
- Real-world applications of LCA in health-system research
- The effects and benefits of Artificial intelligence in climate and health
- Funding opportunities and the evolving climate-and-health landscape
- Applying environmental and implementation evidence to participants' own projects
Participants will explore examples including medical devices, pharmaceuticals, clinical pathways, energy-intensive equipment, health-system services, supply chains, and waste management.
Schedule
The 2026 inaugural course will be held:
- Tuesday to Thursday, November 3 - 5, 2026
- 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (UTC-8)
- 12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Faculty Office Hours (optional)
Format
The workshop combines:
- Interactive lectures and discussions
- Applied examples and case studies
- Hands-on Life Cycle Assessment exercises
- Small-group project work
- Peer-to-peer learning
- Optional faculty office hours and individualized feedback
All sessions will be held live via Zoom.
The workshop is designed for health professionals, researchers, and others interested in developing and implementing sustainable, low-carbon, or resource-efficient health interventions.
Prior expertise in Life Cycle Assessment or Implementation Science is not required. Participants are encouraged to bring an ongoing project, health-system challenge, or area of interest that they can develop throughout the workshop.
Prior expertise in Life Cycle Assessment or Implementation Science is not required. Participants are encouraged to bring an ongoing project, health-system challenge, or area of interest that they can develop throughout the workshop.
This course requires learners to have a stable internet connection and access to the Zoom platform for synchronous meetings.
All course materials will be made available on the course website. In developing assignment submissions, students often benefit from using websites and other materials from their selected organizations.
All learners who meet the minimum course requirements will receive a formal letter documenting their successful completion of the course, its objectives, and requirements.
Learners are expected to attend all lectures (remotely), participate in all small-group activities, and demonstrate progress on applying concepts to a real-world project.
| UCSF affiliates | Non-UCSF | |
| Graduate students & residents | $500 | $750 |
| Postdoctoral scholars | $1,000 | $1,250 |
| Participants residing in LMICs or areas of ongoing armed conflict | $1,250 | |
| All others | $1,500 | $1,750 |
Applicants will be asked to provide proof of trainee or postdoctoral status.
Affiliation is defined as concurrent enrollment in a UCSF-sponsored residency or postdoctoral fellowship program; registered student status in a UCSF professional school or graduate program; or salaried UCSF faculty, academic, or staff appointment.
The registration fee includes CME credit (if desired).
Other course information
Cancellations received in writing before Thursday, October 15, 2026, will be refunded.
No refunds will be issued for cancellations received after that date.
UCSF welcomes everyone, including people with disabilities, to our events. To request reasonable accommodations for this online event, please get in touch with Laura Branagan by emailing [email protected] as soon as possible.
All faculty and administrative participants have stated they have no financial relationships to disclose.
Meet the Faculty
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Rachel King, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor
Department Epidemiology & Biostatistics
Institute for Global Health Sciences
Guest Faculty
- Cassandra Thiel, PhD
- Rosalind Parkes-Ratanshi, MBBS, MA, PhD, FRCP, FFPH
- Petra Mariaria, MPhil
- Lissa Moran, MPH
- Ozioma Oguejiofor, MPhil
- Meghana Gadgil, MD, MPH, FACP, FHM