Planetary health (“health of human civilization and the state of the natural systems”) is an emerging holistic health field that is gaining momentum. Excited about it, we decided to review how the concept is being applied in research. Have a look to what we found!

But first: Why? Conventional public health successes have come at a cost to environmental health. A number of disciplines (e.g.EcoHealth, One Health, GeoHealth, and planetary health) aim to bridge the false dichotomy between human health and ecological sustainability

Objectives --> to identify: 1) key content themes in peer-reviewed planetary health research, 2) Who, and where, are using the term planetary health, (is interdisciplinary and international collaboration happening?) 3) knowledge gaps for self-identified planetary health research

How we did it? 1st through content analysis of papers coming from more than 15 databases, using the 14 expert-derived themes in planetary health ( @ph_alliance). Then, we did a bibliometric analysis (when and where publications came), and created a conceptual network of keywords

[Before the results, wanna say this: I is the best experience I’ve ever had writing a paper. Team: Interdisciplinary collaboration (5 fields, more countries, mostly students, women leadership), ALL authors wrote and responded fast, supported each other AS A TEAM. In addition -->

The process: It felt ideal! We presented at a meeting @ph_alliance @StanfordWoods @StanfordCIGH and received useful and thoughtful insights which we integrated. We also were selected from many for publication in the proceedings at @TheLancetPlanet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(19)30160-3/fulltext

Also, great support from the editorial of @FrontPubHealth. I wish I could feel this way about all my publications .... But is GREAT to know that doing fair, horizontal, enriching collaborations, is not only possible but also makes GREAT science]

Back to the results: From 270 articles only 8.1% were research articles. Publications rose from 8 to 64 publications per year in 2015–2018. Top countries publishing: US , UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, top collaborations between the US, UK, Australia,
and Canada.

Main keywords:climate change, ecology, and non-communicable diseases.Clustered around high-level concepts (e.g. Anthropocene) and food systems. Some cool combination (e.g., mental health-greenspace)! Missing: Indigenous knowledge, some of the themes proposed by @ph_alliance

Conclusions: Lots published in commentaries, not research (Makes sense in new field). More global collaborations needed. Interdisciplinary work developing but could be extended. (Next meeting in Sao Paulo promising to extent network and countries involved) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00343/full?report=reader