Study outlines key role of national and EU policy to control emissions from German hydrogen economy

Study prepared by the Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (RIFS) with support from Environmental Defense Fund Europe evaluates the potential impact of climate-warming emissions in Germany’s future hydrogen economy

Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam

Hydrogen is set to play an important role in a future low-carbon economy. However, the hydrogen value chain comes with a set of emissions challenges that need to be addressed for hydrogen deployment to help achieve climate goals. A study prepared by the Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (RIFS) with support from Environmental Defense Fund Europe evaluates the potential impact of climate-warming emissions in Germany’s future hydrogen economy and provides recommendations for German and EU policymakers on how to avoid them.

There are hopes that hydrogen can become a carbon neutral alternative to fossil fuels, given that hydrogen combustion does not produce carbon dioxide (CO2). It is often seen as the only viable solution for the decarbonisation of industrial sectors such as steel and chemical production. As a result, hydrogen has become an integral part of Germany's national climate strategy to reach net zero by 2045, as Europe’s top emitter[1].

To date, the political debate in Germany has focused on enabling a rapid ramp-up of renewable – or ‘green’ – hydrogen production and building up the necessary infrastructure, both in Germany and in Europe. Yet little attention has been paid to the fact that, regardless of the production method, there are emission challenges with deploying hydrogen that need to be addressed if it is to deliver climate benefits. In the study Controlling Emissions in Germany's Future Hydrogen Economy, the authors evaluate these emissions - which include methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen emissions themselves - and identify policy levers at the national, European, and international level to minimize the impacts.

“As the EU shifts gears after five years of Green Deal policies towards the next big policy juncture – the EU Clean Industrial Deal – it’s crucial that while it looks to build out a competitive hydrogen industry, it remains focused on reducing harmful climate-warming emissions,” says Léa Pilsner, Senior Policy Manager at Environmental Defense Fund Europe.

The warming impact of hydrogen as an indirect greenhouse gas (GHG)

The findings of this research show that the hydrogen emissions from a hydrogen value chain based entirely on green hydrogen would amount to around eleven million tonnes of CO2-equivalents (GWP100) in 2045. To put this into perspective, this is equivalent to approximately 17% of Germany’s projected residual GHG emissions in 2045 in its net zero scenarios.

Although hydrogen itself is not a direct greenhouse gas, its chemical reactions in the atmosphere lead to an increase in the abundance of other GHGs, namely methane, tropospheric ozone and stratospheric water vapour. Taking these reactions into account, the global warming potential of hydrogen over a hundred years is more than eleven times higher than that of CO2.

Study shows scenarios for a future German hydrogen economy

"We need to ensure that the development of hydrogen is done with environmental integrity, and that means minimizing emissions - including of hydrogen itself”, says study author Kathleen Mar. She explains: “Control measures are needed to make sure hydrogen's promise as a low-carbon fuel can be realized."

Taking Germany’s National Hydrogen Strategy as a starting point, the authors develop several illustrative scenarios for a future German hydrogen economy based on domestically produced green hydrogen and imported green and blue hydrogen. In a next step, the authors quantify the expected hydrogen (H2) emissions along with methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (for the case of blue hydrogen) of these scenarios and their global warming potential. The study also examines potential entry points for policy measures aimed at reducing or avoiding these emissions and provides an overview of the current German and EU regulatory landscape relevant for the hydrogen sector. It concludes by offering recommendations on how to account for and control these emissions along the hydrogen value chain.

Key findings from the study:

• Hydrogen emissions contribute to climate change and policy measures are needed to reduce or avoid these emissions.
• We estimate that hydrogen emissions occur primarily at the point of production, where they can be controlled.
• The European Union should acknowledge the role of hydrogen as an indirect greenhouse gas and include hydrogen emissions in the methodologies for calculating emissions savings from hydrogen.
• The EU should strengthen the regulatory framework to curb all climate-warmings emissions from the production of blue hydrogen in the EU and abroad.
• Extending the EU Methane Regulation to include methane emissions from imported hydrogen and its derivatives is an important first step towards a more robust regulatory framework.

“Using Germany, Europe’s biggest industrial base and potential hydrogen market, as an example, our study highlights the importance of not underestimating the impacts of three key direct and indirect greenhouse gases (GHGs) related to hydrogen deployment – methane, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen itself”, says study author Rainer Quitzow from the RIFS. “The evidence presented is a call to action for smart policy choices that balance climate and economic imperatives.”

Join our Report Launch and Discussion:

Controlling Emissions in a European hydrogen economy Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024, 10:00-11:00 (CET) via Zoom
Register here: https://www.rifs-potsdam.de/de/veranstaltungen/controlling-emissions-european-hydrogen-economy-report-launch-and-discussion
You will receive the link to join the event with the confirmation e-mail after registration.

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DOI

10.48481/rifs.2024.016 

Method of Research

Case study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Controlling Emissions in Germany’s Future Hydrogen Economy. Entry-Points for Policy Action

Article Publication Date

13-Nov-2024

 

Cash is King: The surprising truth about spending habits in a cashless world 

Physical cash not only influences how much we spend but also fosters a profound sense of psychological ownership that digital payments cannot replicate, according to research from the University of Surrey 

University of Surrey

Cash is King: The surprising truth about spending habits in a cashless world 

Physical cash not only influences how much we spend but also fosters a profound sense of psychological ownership that digital payments cannot replicate, according to research from the University of Surrey. 

In a paper published in Qualitative Market Research, researchers detail as cash fades from our wallets, so too does our awareness of spending, leading to impulsive and unnecessary purchases. The study suggests that maintaining a physical element in our payment systems may be vital for promoting responsible spending behaviours. 

Dr Jashim Khan, Associate Professor of Marketing and Director of International Business Management and lead-author of the study at the University of Surrey said: 

"The visceral nature of cash—its smell, feel, and the act of counting it—creates an emotional connection that digital payments lack. 

“When we handle cash, we are not just spending money; we are parting with a piece of ourselves." 

The research team conducted their study in two different cultures, and at very different times— New Zealand in 2013 and China in 2023. They used focus groups and open-ended questionnaires to gather rich, detailed data about consumer experiences with cash and cashless payment methods. Participants were asked to describe their feelings and behaviours surrounding the use of different payment modes. They found that cash promotes heightened awareness of spending, while cards and apps often lead to a disconnection from the money being spent. 

While 50% of transactions in China are made through app-based payments, participants expressed a diminished sense of ownership over their finances. One participant noted, "Digital money doesn’t feel like spending your own money; there is no concept of money, but cash is different; it always feels like your money is decreasing when you use it." This sentiment echoes across both studies, underscoring the emotional weight that cash carries compared to its digital counterparts. 

The research also found that while people feel happy and secure using third-party payment apps, they sometimes struggle with a sense of loss when parting with cash. Emotional responses to cash transactions include sadness and guilt, reflecting a deeper psychological connection to physical money. In contrast, the ease of digital payments often results in mindless spending, as the tangibility of cash is replaced by abstract numbers on a screen.  

Dr Khan continues: 

 "Our research shows that cash isn’t just money—it’s a way to stay connected to what we spend. Holding cash in our hands reminds us of its value, something that digital payments can make easy to forget. As we use more cashless options, it’s worth remembering the lessons cash teaches about spending wisely. We’re not saying cash is outdated. In fact, we’re rethinking how we view and manage money as things change. Moving to a cashless society means we need to understand how different payment choices affect us, not just financially but emotionally. Knowing this can help us make better financial decisions in a world where money often feels invisible." 

[ENDS]  

Note to editors:  

• The full paper is available in the journal of Qualitative Market Research. 

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Journal

Qualitative Market Research An International Journal

DOI

10.1108/qmr-04-2023-0049 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Money you could touch: cash and psychological ownership

How do microbiomes influence the study of life?

Penn State

 

video: 

Holobiont biology recognizes animals, plants, fungi and other hosts as dynamic assemblages of interacting and/or interdependent host and microbial cells, just as the host body is recognized as a dynamic assemblage of its own interacting cells that forge anatomical structures with specialized functions.

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Credit: Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Microorganisms — bacteria, viruses and other tiny life forms — may drive biological variation in visible life as much, if not more, than genetic mutations, creating new lineages and even new species of animals and plants, according to Seth Bordenstein, director of Penn State’s One Health Microbiome Center, professor of biology and entomology, and the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Endowed Chair in Microbiome Sciences. Bordenstein and 21 other scientists from around the world published a paper in the leading journal Science, summarizing research that they said drives a deeper understanding of biological variation by uniting life’s seen and unseen realms.

The authors explained that this newly described concept — holobiont biology — underpins a multidisciplinary and holistic understanding of how life’s forms and functions, from human disease to agricultural output, depend upon the relationships between microorganisms and their hosts. Penn State News spoke with Bordenstein about the paper and the emerging field of holobiont biology.

Q: In simple terms, what is evolution? Why do organisms vary in traits?

Bordenstein: The longstanding definition of evolution is the process by which living things change over time by gradually mutating and adapting to their environments. This happens often through a process known as natural selection, where traits that help an organism survive and reproduce are passed on to future generations, while less useful traits gradually disappear.

Historically, we’ve looked at the timescale for evolution as happening over many generations, with these small changes eventually leading to the development of new traits and even new species. Now, when it comes to incorporating the microbiome, the collection of all microbes in and on a host, into this discussion, the timescale and magnitude of biological change becomes more interesting and complex.

Q: What can this new paper tell us about what has been overlooked in the study of life?

Bordenstein: Traditionally, biologists have studied visible and invisible life in silos, which has caused our concepts of life to separate. Many scientists were settled in their ways of thinking of microbes as background noise, or transient contaminants without major impact on host life. Yet microbial cells in and on the human body can actually outnumber human cells.

What we’re learning today and over the past decade, is that that sometimes microbes explain more biological trait variation in organisms than the genes do. This is the case, for instance, with the likelihood of human colon cancer, cholesterol levels, and body mass index. And, more importantly, if you take host genetics and microbes together, you start to see a fuller picture of how life varies and changes over time.

Microbes are the base of the biosphere. They outnumber the stars in the universe by orders of magnitude and have been here for four billion years. There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people on the planet. Every host organism lives in contact and association with microbes, and those microbes can cause variation in traits, whether it's chronic disease, agricultural output, biodiversity loss or how thin we are — there's a lot going on that microbes contribute to.

Q: Historically, the field of biology tends to categorize living things into taxa, the filing system for species, genus, family, order, etc. How does holobiont biology fit into or challenge that framework?

Bordenstein: We envision that microbes are fundamental to how biologists explain variation in host life forms, for example animals and plants. So, in the case of classification of species, we’re making the case that organisms are not autonomous. They exist, by definition, always in association and in contact with microbes.

Just has been done with genetic engineering and selective breeding, we see this holistic way of thinking about life as an opportunity to harness the power of the microbiome to make improvements in agriculture and aquaculture, resilience in environmental sustainability, and advances in human health.

This holistic approach of holobiont biology will open the door to finding applications for live microbial communities that could, for example, make agriculture more resilient to climate change, help sustain biodiversity or improve human health by using microbes to combat chronic diseases including cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, cardiovascular disease, and diseases associated with aging.

Q: Essentially, you are saying that we should have a much broader view of what biology looks like, what evolution looks like, because there is an entire world on the microscopic level that is propelling life on the macro level. You reference “Origin of Species,” Charles Darwin’s seminal work published in 1859, frequently in your paper. Why re-examine a 165-year-old book when introducing a new paradigm?

Bordenstein: Darwin's “Origin of Species” remains the bedrock of modern biology today. But it’s worth noting that the Origin of Species was written only about animals and plants. There were no bacteria in it. That doesn't mean that Darwin’s principles do not apply to microbes, but he was focused on what he could see at the time. Now, we have a much fuller picture of the biosphere. What Darwin did was explain to us why forces of evolution shape lineages into new varieties and ultimately into new species, but he didn't know the mechanisms that made these changes possible. He didn't know about genetic mutations nor the microbial forces at work.

Q: You also address Mendelian genetics in the paper, the science of breeding for various traits as described by Gregor Mendel in the 1860s. There have been significant advancements in the study of genetics over the past century, from sequencing to editing, so how does the holobiont biology framework intersect with our modern understanding of genetic diversity and evolution?

Bordenstein: During the 1920s to 1940s, biology had a revolution known as the Modern Synthesis, in which the 19th century discoveries of Mendel's genetic laws merged with Darwin's theory of evolution to create this beautiful explanation for how new variations of form and function develop. That science is what drove biology to where we are today.  

Now, many scholars think we're in a post-Modern Synthesis because we're now adding microbiology into our understanding of host genetics and evolution. We’ve learned that microbes are also sources of new forms, functions, and variants of host life, just like genetic mutations. As a consequence, several operational and practical steps can be taken to infuse holobiont biology into the full fabric of the life sciences.

Q: How do you bring about this new paradigm shift in the life sciences?

Bordenstein: It starts with how we define and teach biology. That means rethinking how we describe animals and plants; we're not calling them animals and plants anymore. We’re thinking of animals and plants as a consortium of host and microbial cells that influence anatomy and physiology, because that is the reality of nature. We cannot think about animal or plant genomes in a way that's separate from microbial genomes when we know that both genomic compartments are all part of the functional unit.

There is also a statistical, analytical aspect to what we're going to see next. Just as we have databases to determine the influence of genetics on traits, we will need new analytics to determine the contribution of microbes and how they interact with genetics to explain traits.

Finally, once we have the databases and analytic tools developed, we can engineer microbes and microbiomes as much as we can engineer genes to make a better outcome for an organism, whether that’s in agriculture, the environment, or even for ourselves. Our hope is to use this concept to engineer a better future.

A sample of a microbe collected on Penn State’s University Park campus grows on an agar plate. Microbes are the foundation of our agricultural, environmental and human ecosystems, and they flow between these three environments to shape health and disease risk within each system.

Credit

Michelle Bixby / Penn State

Other Penn State co-authors are Mónica Medina, professor of biology, and Nichole Ginnan, research project manager. Other authors on the paper are affiliated with the Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics at the University of Copenhagen, the Department of Natural History in Trondheim, Norway, the Università degli Studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria in Italy, the University of Padua in Italy, Aalborg University in Denmark, the Khalifa Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology at the United Arab Emirates University, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Clemson University, the University of Connecticut, Oregon State University and the University of Pittsburgh.

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.ado2152 

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The disciplinary matrix of holobiont biology

Article Publication Date

14-Nov-2024

Rapid growth of global wildland-urban interface associated with wildfire risk, study shows

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters

 

image: 

Conceptual diagram illustrating how human society and wildfire interact from distant wildlands to densely populated urban areas.

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Credit: Image by GUO Yongxuan

Rapid human expansion into natural landscapes, resulting in the growth of the wildland-urban interface (WUI), has heightened risks associated with wildfires.

Prof. WANG Jianghao’s team from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has recently mapped global WUI changes in 2000, 2010, and 2020, revealing alarming upward trends in WUI areas.

This work, published in Science Advances, provides critical insights into how urbanization can intensify potential wildfire risks faced by people worldwide.

Against the backdrop of industrialization, the frequency and intensity of human activity have escalated, resulting in extensive natural land conversion into WUI areas. The most immediate conflict between human society and the Earth system is clustered in WUI, placing residents there at a higher risk of exposure to natural hazards, such as floods, landslides, and wildfires.

“The increased occurrence of extreme and large wildfires, exacerbated by climate change, necessitates urgent attention to these hazards in WUI areas,” said Prof. WANG.

Individuals living in or near WUI areas face elevated mortality risk due to exposure to flames and heat. Wildfire-related smoke can also increase the risk of illness and death even at a distance up to 1,000 km.

Therefore, understanding the dynamics of WUI growth and its underlying causes is critical for developing effective wildfire management strategies.

By 2020, global WUI areas covered 1.44% of the terrestrial surface, with approximately 1.2 billion people residing in these areas. Over the past two decades, WUI areas have expanded by more than a third, with 85% of new WUI areas identified between 2010 and 2020, the study showed.

The researchers noted that urbanization is the primary driver of WUI expansion, while changes in natural vegetation have a minimal impact. The acceleration of urban expansion also explains the uneven change in WUI areas.

The researchers’ further exploration of the spatial relationship between WUI zones and fire activity revealed that wildfires in and around WUI areas tend to be dense but low intensity, indicating that the WUI is a fire-prone area. From 2010 to 2020, small fires increased within a 1-km buffer of the WUI, while fire activities decreased at least 3 km away, which may be attributed to the increase in human activity.

In summary, the study shows that urbanization—as a key driver of WUI expansion—has contributed to increasing wildfire risks.

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Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.ado9587 

Article Title

Global expansion of wildland-urban interface intensifies human exposure to wildfire risk in the 21st century

 

Study of US law enforcement co-responder programs identifies wide variations

Findings are first step in evaluating initiatives’ effectiveness, which can lead to evidence-based guidelines and protocols

Crime and Justice Research Alliance

 

In response to demands for police reform, agencies have begun to pursue alternative responses to calls involving mental health crises. Across the United States, jurisdictions are adopting co-responder teams that bring qualified mental or behavioral health professionals into police emergency responses calls. In a new study, researchers surveyed local and state law enforcement agencies to determine the prevalence and use of these teams. They found wide variation in the types of teams and how they operate.

The study, by researchers at George Mason University and the University of Wyoming, appears in Policing: An International Journal.

            “Our survey is the first to examine the prevalence and characteristics of law enforcement co-responder programs in the United States,” explains Cynthia Lum, professor of criminology, law, and society at George Mason University, who coauthored the study. “Our findings represent a first step in evaluating the effectiveness of these programs and in turn, developing evidence-based guidelines and protocols for their implementation.” Lum is an expert whose work is promoted by the NCJA Crime and Justice Research Alliance, which is funded by the National Criminal Justice Association.

Since the deinstitutionalization of state mental health hospitals in the 1960s, law enforcement has become the primary responders to people experiencing a mental health crisis. But the practice has come under intense scrutiny as a result of high-profile officer-involved deaths of people experiencing mental health crises. Among alternative responses is the co-responder model, which involves police partnering with qualified mental health professionals to respond to mental and behavioral health calls. However, the extent, nature, and effectiveness of these programs has not been widely investigated.

In this study, researchers developed and administered a survey to a nationally representative sample of local and state law enforcement agencies. A total of 568 agencies from all regions of the United States completed the survey between May 2022 and May 2023; 70% were local, county, or regional police departments; 24% were sheriff’s offices; and 3.5% were state or highway patrol agencies.

            The study found wide variations in staffing, operations, qualifications, and characteristics of co-responder programs, as well as in respondents’ beliefs about the effectiveness of such programs. The study also found a lack of consistent programmatic guidance to inform programs’ development, which results in personnel and funding challenges to implementing and maintaining co-responder programs. Specifically, the study found that:

• Nearly 88% of responding agencies had officers certified to be part of crisis intervention teams (CITs) and 41% reported having a co-responder program.
• Of the 232 agencies with co-responder teams, almost half (45.7%) started their program since 2020, 39% of the agencies had just one co-responder or qualified mental health professional to respond to calls with an officer (i.e., one team); 32% had two to three teams, 12% had four to six teams, and 9% had seven or more teams.
• Only 19% of responding agencies had co-responder teams available around the clock; 55% had teams operating on certain days and times, and 53% said when teams were not in operation, they were available to assist over the phone or by radio.
• In terms of training, 48% of agencies said co-responders received no additional training from the law enforcement agencies. Of the 48% that did provide training, the most common was maintaining personal and officer safety, followed by guidance on police procedures and culture, state laws, and use of force.
• Only 31% of responding agencies had some plan to evaluate or track the effectiveness of their co-responder teams by assessing outcomes such as use of force, arrests, officers’ time spent on calls, repeat calls, and hospitalization. Evaluation and tracking were sometimes tied to how programs were funded or managed (78% of programs were funded by local or state governments and 27% were funded by federal grants).

            “Our study suggests that several characteristics of co-responder programs are ripe for evaluation, including qualifications and training for mental health professionals and officers; protocols for implementation and operation; assessments of officer buy-in; understanding of data collection necessary for evaluating outcomes; and recommendations for building relationships with the community, between agencies, and with stakeholders,” notes Clair V. Uding, associate professor of criminal justice and sociology at the University of Wyoming, who led the study.

“While jurisdictions and communities are unique, efforts to better document programs’ development and encourage agencies to evaluate and share their information about effectiveness or lack thereof can help inform others who have adopted or want to adopt these programs.”

Among the study’s limitations, according to the authors, are that the high prevalence of CIT and co-responder programs among respondents could represent a selection bias; agencies without these programs may have disregarded the survey. In addition, the study was not designed to evaluate any specific aspect of co-responder programs but to provide information about agencies’ practices. And the study did not explore types of alternative responses to mental health crises that do not involve the police.

            “If we want more evidence-based approaches to co-responder units, police agencies’ approaches need to be tracked, assessed, and evaluated against desired outcomes,” adds Haley Moon, PhD student in psychology at the University of Wyoming, who coauthored the study. “Our results can help inform a theory of change framework for co-responder programs that can be applied to different communities with different needs and resources, to help identify short- and long-term goals, articulate required actions to achieve these goals, and develop measurable indicators of success.”

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Journal

Policing An International Journal

DOI

10.1108/PIJPSM-04-2024-0062 

Article Title

The status of co-responders in law enforcement: findings from a national survey of law enforcement agencies

Fayetteville police positive about partnership with social workers

SOCIAL WORKERS ARE COPS TOO

University of Arkansas

 

image: 

University of Arkanas School of Social Work professors Mark Plassmeyer and Kim Stauss.

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Credit: Photo by Whit Pruitt/University of Arkansas University Relations

In 2021, the University of Arkansas School of Social Work partnered with the Fayetteville Police Department to pair officers with social workers trained to help people suffering mental crises. Initially, the officers were supportive of the effort but also somewhat hesitant. Now that the co-response teams are fully established, the officers say the program benefits the community and helps them carry out their duties. 

The officers’ changing attitudes to the program were reported in the latest issue of the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology. The paper was written by U of A social work professors Mark Plassmeyer and Kim Stauss, who helped launch and continue to work with the Fayetteville Police Department on the co-response program. Melissa Gute, who completed her Master of Social Work at the U of A and now works for the police department, was also an author. 

The Crisis Intervention Response Team in Fayetteville launched with a single intern from the U of A School of Social Work. Today the police department has two teams that pair a full-time social worker with an officer and is in the process of hiring social workers for two more teams. 

“I think you are seeing the co-response programs expanding and growing, because people are seeing that not only do they help their community but also support the individual police departments in accomplishing their missions,” Stauss said. 

In Fayetteville, officers told the researchers the program reduced their workload while helping them better serve people suffering a mental health crisis. The intervention of the social workers also cut down the number of “high utilizers,” people who officers might encounter weekly or even daily. 

“Their retention has increased, which is a huge thing for police departments. Frustration has gone down,” Stauss said. 

The officers said the progressive culture of the Fayetteville Police Department and the strong support of their chief helped the co-response program succeed. 

Plassmeyer and Stauss next plan to study how people who have received services from the Crisis Intervention Response Team view the program and how aware the Fayetteville community is of the work. 

The research evaluating the Fayetteville co-response program is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice, the research agency of the Department of Justice. 

Police departments around Arkansas have expressed interest in creating their own version of the Fayetteville co-response teams. Plassmeyer and Stauss also spoke about the work at a recent conference of the Arkansas Association of Chiefs of Police. 

“People are trying to get these off the ground in rural areas, urban areas, suburban, you name it. I’ve noticed that a lot of people are struggling to find clinicians,” Plassmeyer said. 

Next semester, the lead social worker at the Fayetteville Police Department will teach a class at the U of A on practicing in a law enforcement environment. The School of Social Work’s online advanced-standing master’s program could also train students around the state who want to work with police departments.

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Journal

Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology

DOI

10.1007/s11896-024-09706-6 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

"We Need to Not Fear You": Essential Factors Identified by Sworn Officers and Civilian Staff for Implementation and Expansion of a Co-Response Program

 

New study emphasizes the importance of arts and humanities in neurology training

Boston University School of Medicine

(Boston)—Art and neurology have long been intertwined. Renaissance artwork depicted the nuances of human anatomy and pathology with remarkable accuracy, while Impressionism, Cubism, and other artistic movements utilized the unique features of human vision and perception to achieve artistic impact. Just as artists relied on an intuitive understanding of neuroscience, neuroscientists have long documented their findings with artistic renderings of the brain, giving rise to key scientific observations.

 

Multiple studies have shown that visual arts training improves observational skills, communication and empathy among both medical students and residents in ophthalmology, nuclear medicine, radiology, and dermatology. However, studies examining the benefits of visual arts training for neurology residents remain scarce.

 

In a new study, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have found teaching artistic observation to neurology residents contributed to the development of well-rounded physicians with the capacity to be both skilled clinicians and compassionate healers.

 

“The art of neurologic diagnosis requires meticulous observation, with careful attention paid to a patient’s history, physical examination and neuroimaging. However, resident physicians face heavy workloads, burnout and emotional exhaustion due to the challenging nature of their training. These stressors have the potential to hinder residents’ observational skills,” explained first and corresponding author Tatiana Greige, MD, a former neurology resident at BMC.

 

Currently a vascular neurology fellow at Mass General Brigham, Greige created the Museum Art in Neurology Education Training project to introduce BMC neurology residents to the world of visual arts, improve their observational skills, foster their empathic skills, develop their tolerance for uncertainty encountered in clinical practice and provide them with a unique space for self-expression and personal growth through museum-based sessions.

The study participants were resident physicians undergoing training in both adult and pediatric neurology in the Boston University Neurology Residency Program. They received three custom-designed art observation training sessions between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. Each session was four hours long and led by professional art educators. The residents completed pre- and post-intervention tests to assess for change in their observational skills. The tests included a combination of MRI images, clinical videos and artworks.

 

Following the art training, the researchers found observational skills improved significantly for the residents between the pre- and post-intervention tests. The majority of residents noted a subjective improvement in their communication and observational skills as well as an increase in their empathy skills. All of the residents noted feeling more comfortable with the notion of uncertainty in a clinical setting after attending the museum sessions and all of the residents agreed that this project should be repeated for future years.

 

According to the researchers, humanities can enrich and complement residency curriculum, but beyond any potential educational benefit, they offer a unique and safe space for self-reflection and personal growth. “Art allows for the expression of emotions that may be difficult to convey with words alone. Because art has the potential to capture an expansive breadth of human experience, it may also help medical trainees better grapple with suffering, inequity, and other limitations of the healthcare system,” explained senior author Pria Anand, MD, assistant professor of neurology at the school and director of neurology residency.

 

These findings appear online in the journal Neurology: Education. 

 

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Journal

Neurology Education

DOI

10.1212/NE9.000000000020017 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Education Research: The MANET Project

Article Publication Date

13-Nov-2024