Angela Evans

Associate Professor
PhD, FFPM RCPS (Glasg), Dip App Sc (Pod), Grad Dip Soc Sc (Child Devel)

Adjunct Associate Professor
Discipline of Podiatry I School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport
La Trobe University I Victoria I 3086 I Australia

Steps to a Greener Podiatry Practice: Prioritising Sustainability and Environmental Responsibility

Introduction
The climate crisis is essentially a public health crisis. Response is imperative to prevent economic and social crises associated with the growing burden of climate impacts on human health and the health care sector.

Green Podiatry Pillars
By adopting the three pillars of Exercise, Evidence, and Everyday changes, podiatrists can contribute to more sustainable health and health care. These principles are applicable across allied health.

Discussion
Educating our patients to use their feet for low carbon active transport, eliminating interventions not supporting by evidence, and reducing fossil fuel driven supply chains and energy use, are three impactful measures that all podiatrists, and indeed, all health and medical personnel, need to adopt.

Every healthcare professional can reduce emissions by recycling, conserving product use, and using cleaner energy.

The avoidable suffering, enormous and costly use of resources for diabetic foot disease, is a scourge that must realise its preventable potential. It is too late, too costly, too polluting, and too sad, to continue to direct health care and research efforts and budgets, to an expensive modifiable diabetes disease process, potentiated by poor food and physical inactivity.

Conclusions
Climate change poses the greatest health threat of the 21st century, with implications for all.

Healthcare contributes 5 to 8% of GHG, and NCD are increasing, so healthcare must lead on primary health. As citizens and health professionals, we must advocate for better community health, and educate our patients.

All health and medical personnel need to consider planetary health and sustainable healthcare within their daily work. Healthcare must act to address climate change, and realise benefits for people and planet.

Biography

Angela Evans AM is an Adelaide based clinician, Adjunct Associate Professor at La Trobe University, Visiting Professor at University of Barcelona, Postgraduate qualifications include: FAAPSM, post-graduate diploma in social science, PhD by thesis investigating paediatric leg pain, Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, APodA paediatric credential, Harvard University climate change/health certification, Cambridge University Sustainability Leadership.

Publications include: 115 peer-reviewed journal articles, Cochrane Library systematic reviews for non-surgical intervention for paediatric flat foot (2010, 2022), podiatry textbook Paediatrics, monograph series Evidence Essentials, and textbook chapters.

A/Prof Evans is vice-president of the Australian Podiatry Association, and a Director at AnglicareSA.

Angela has volunteered with clubfoot projects in Vietnam, and since 2008 in Bangladesh, using the Ponseti corrective method. Walk for Life Clubfoot, in Bangladesh, has treated over 35,000 children with congenital clubfoot deformity. Further volunteer history: National Medical Education Scientific Council and Medical Education Scientific Advisory Council of Diabetes Australia; Scientific Committees of 1998, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2019 (Chair) Australasian Podiatry conferences; Medical programs at Olympic Games 2000, Special Olympics World Winter Games 2005, Commonwealth Games 2006, Clinical Director of Special Olympics National Games 2010; Global Clubfoot Initiative, Oxford. Angela Evans won the 2016 BMJ South Asia Healthcare Award for Excellence in Delivery of Primary Care with Walk for Life Clubfoot. In 2019, Angela received an Australian National Honour, as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

A/Prof Evans has great interest is the nexus between research and clinical practice, so healthcare refrains from low value care, especially when also high carbon care.

Most recently, Angela has initiated Green Podiatry, in response to the global healthcare and climate change crisis. Collaboration with University of New South Wales Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) microrecycling science, involves preliminary and exploratory recycling and reforming of used orthotics into materials and products for new use – the Green Foot Orthoses Project (GFOP). As a member of the Sustainability working group of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Angela has produced the Green Podiatry Teaching and Learning modules for universities, and several ‘green shoe lists’.

Angela Evans

Steps to a Greener Podiatry Practice: Prioritising Sustainability and Environmental Responsibility

Biography

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