Harvard Heat Emergencies Prevention, Diagnosis and Management 2025
Target Audience: clinicians, emergency responders
Information:
The Heat Emergencies: Prevention, Diagnosis, and Management Course is a virtual, lecture-based 4 half-day course to educate clinicians about how to diagnose, treat, and prevent heat-related illness. The course will describe the current evidence around all heat-related emergencies, including heat stroke, heat exhaustion, and heat syncope. The course will provide a background on the changing epidemiology of heat-related illness, varying definitions of heat, basics of thermal physiology, and individual and population-based approaches to prevention of heat-related illness.
Learning Objectives
- Explain the epidemiology of heat related illness and associated disease processes.
- Recognize the thermal physiology underlying clinical presentations of heat related illness.
- Create a differential diagnosis and develop comprehensive, evidence-based management plans for all forms of heat related illness, including heat exhaustion, heat syncope, and heat stroke.
- Describe groups at increased risk for heat related illness and develop anticipatory guidance and prevention plans.
- Discuss the pharmacological interactions with heat-related illness and develop plans for protecting patients.
- Identify the resources needed and best steps to take for preparedness, diagnosis and treatment of heat related illness during event medicine and in low-resources settings.
- Explain the impacts of heat across organ systems, including impacts on mental health and behavioral health and kidney disease.
- Apply preventive solutions for heat related illness including from a community based, public health, and health systems approach.
Participant Types
General Physicians, Specialty Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, Nurses, Pharmacists, Primary Care Physicians, and Others
+ Topics:
All agenda sessions are in Eastern Time.
Day 1 – Monday, June 16, 2025
Theme: Welcome, Overview, and Importance of Heat Clinical Education
Speakers: Tess Wiskel, Caleb Dresser
| Time | Session Title | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1:00 – 1:30 pm | Defining Heat | Caleb Dresser |
| 1:30 – 2:15 pm | Heat Physiology | Robert Meade |
| 2:15 – 3:00 pm | Epidemiological Impacts of Heat | Antonella Zanobetti |
| 3:00 – 4:00 pm | Case Studies of Heat-Related Illness | Gayle Kouklis, Mary Meyer, Tara Benesch |
| 4:00 – 4:45 pm | Closing Remarks and Q&A | Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel |
| 4:45 – 5:00 pm |
Day 2 – Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Theme: Clinical Management of Heat-Related Illness
Speakers: Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel
| Time | Session Title | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1:00 – 1:15 pm | Welcome and Recap | Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel |
| 1:15 – 2:00 pm | Event Medicine and Heat-Related Illness | John Jardine, MD |
| 2:00 – 3:00 pm | Current Evidence on Heat-Related Illness | Kurt Eifling |
| 3:00 – 3:45 pm | Diagnosis of Heat-Related Illness | Tess Wiskel |
| 3:45 – 4:45 pm | Management of Heat-Related Illness | Caleb Dresser |
| 4:45 – 5:00 pm | Closing Remarks and Q&A | Tess Wiskel, Caleb Dresser |
Day 3 – Monday, June 23, 2025
Theme: Heat Impacts on Special Populations
Speakers: Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel
| Time | Session Title | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1:00 – 1:15 pm | Welcome and Recap | Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel |
| 1:15 – 2:00 pm | Heat, Kidney Disease, and Outdoor Work | Nathan Raines |
| 2:00 – 2:45 pm | Pharmaceutical Considerations in Hot Weather | Hayley Blackburn |
| 2:45 – 3:15 pm | Small Group Discussions: What Special Populations Are You Worried About in Your Practice, and What Can Be Done? | Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel |
| 3:15 – 4:00 pm | Heat-Related Illness in Special Populations | Bruce Bekkar, Marissa Hauptman, Manijeh Berenji, Nisha Shah |
| 4:00 – 4:45 pm | Heat and Behavioral Health | Elizabeth Pinsky |
| 4:45 – 5:00 pm | Closing Remarks and Q&A | Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel |
Day 4 – Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Theme: Prevention, Systems, and Policy Solutions
Speakers: Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel
| Time | Session Title | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| 1:00 – 1:05 pm | Welcome and Recap | Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel |
| 1:05 – 2:00 pm | Prevention and Management in Low-Resource Settings | Satchit Balsari |
| 2:00 – 2:45 pm | Practical Resources for the Busy Clinician | Geoffrey Comp, Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel |
| 2:45 – 3:45 pm | Health System Impacts & Preparedness for Extreme Heat | Jeremy Hess |
| 3:45 – 4:30 pm | Preventive Solutions Through Public Health and Policy | Jane Gilbert |
| 4:30 – 5:00 pm | Closing Remarks and Q&A | Caleb Dresser, Tess Wiskel |
