The Cooperative
Accelerating environmental threats takes a tremendous toll on health. Conditions like heat stroke, asthma flares, heart attacks, and pregnancy complications are on the rise as extreme temperatures, poor air quality, and catastrophic storms become more common. These threats are not only affecting health but also redefining what it means to deliver patient care—creating an opportunity for healthcare to shift from reactive treatment to proactive care.
The Cooperative is a collaborative initiative based at Mass General Brigham that is developing innovative healthcare-wide models and best practices to equip clinicians and healthcare systems with the tools they need to help patients stay healthier in a changing environment. Focused on supporting the patients most affected, it brings together diverse stakeholders to co-develop healthcare solutions that integrate clinical care with public health and community-based support. Over time, these healthcare adaptations will help lay the groundwork for broader system change—embedding patient resilience into everyday care, better aligning resources across sectors, and supporting prevention-based models.
Our vision
Working together across healthcare, public health, communities, and other sectors to protect health and build resilience in a changing environment.
Our mission
Developing holistic, integrated models that harness a healthcare-wide approach to strengthen patient resilience and improve health outcomes related to environmental threats.
Our impact
Advancing equitable, climate-informed patient care that protects patients, improves patient outcomes, and brings public health to the bedside.
Partnering to develop integrated, scalable healthcare solutions for environmental threats at three levels
The Cooperative is locally driven, nationally focused, and globally connected. We are bringing together stakeholders across healthcare, public health, community-based organizations, local and state governments, academia, and other sectors to co-develop and scale healthcare solutions — working at the institutional, local, and national levels.
Institutionally at Mass General Brigham: The Cooperative is building healthcare programs by adapting and integrating existing mechanisms across the system into a healthcare-wide response. We work as a backbone across the system, partnering with a range of teams to design innovative approaches together.
Locally in Greater Boston: The Cooperative is co-developing a flagship Innovation Hub with stakeholders from across the city and state. The initiative aims to launch joint healthcare programs with systems across the city that integrate with existing population and community-based interventions.
Nationally: This work is supported by a range of experts and organizations from across the country and globe. Insights will be shared through a roadmap of operational guidance, lessons learned, and best practices. National Innovation Forums will collaboratively solve problems and help drive broader change.
Ultimately, this work requires collaboration across all levels of infrastructure to design, implement, evaluate, and scale effective and equitable healthcare solutions at the speed required.
The Cooperative’s initial focus is on protecting patients from the health impacts of heat and poor air quality. While each poses significant health risks on its own, the combined effects can create even greater harm. Over time, The Cooperative will expand its focus to develop healthcare solutions that address additional climate-related health harms like extreme weather and water- and vector-borne diseases.
The Cooperative’s institutional and national deliverables
Innovate new models of care delivery that protect patients from environmental threats, starting with heat and poor air quality.
Targeting areas where there is existing alignment between healthcare system priorities and long-term population health goals, The Cooperative partnered with the Mass General Brigham Community Health team on the 2025 Mass General Brigham Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) to incorporate heat- and air quality-related questions for the first time. This led to a partnership with the Mass General Brigham Health Equity team to integrate a heat vulnerability question into the systemwide screening for social risk factors in May 2026. This has created a robust mechanism to identify high-risk patients from across the system as we build out an all-of-healthcare approach for heat and poor air quality.
Share proven strategies, operational guidance, and lessons learned to guide healthcare systems nationwide
This real-time roadmap will track The Cooperative’s journey to build a healthcare-wide response at Mass General Brigham, elevate innovative models locally and nationally, and share emerging insights co-designed with leading experts and organizations.
Connect leaders from across disciplines and sectors to collaboratively solve problems and build momentum for change
The Cooperative’s inaugural Innovation Forum is being held on September 23, 2026, at Climate Week NYC at the National Academy of Medicine and New York Academy of Medicine's Climate and Health Commons. The event features members of The Cooperative’s National Strategic Advisory Board who are national and global leaders with deep-rooted experience across healthcare, government, community-based organizations, and other disciplines. Together, they discuss opportunities for healthcare to take coordinated action alongside other stakeholders to develop innovative, patient-centered approaches that protect those most vulnerable to heat and poor air quality.