HERSHEY, Pa. — Threads for Med Ed, or T4ME, a medical student club at Penn State’s College of Medicine, is taking a creative, multidimensional approach to addressing issues of sustainability.
T4ME collects donations of professional clothing from College of Medicine faculty and staff to redistribute to medical students in preparation for their clerkships and/or interviews. The club was started about two years ago by Dr. Amy Burns, a urologist now at UPMC Harrisburg, in conjunction with Dr. Emmanuelle Williams, associate dean of student affairs and a gastroenterologist at Penn State College of Medicine.
“Originally, the vision was to alleviate the financial burden on our medical students when buying professional clothing,” said Dr. Amanda Cooper, a trauma and acute care surgeon and an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at Penn State College of Medicine, who, along with Williams, is a faculty adviser for the T4ME club. “Many physicians and professionals in the institution have professional clothing that they don’t wear anymore. Instead of donating it at Goodwill or somewhere similar, why not collect it and let our medical students take it if it suits them?”
T4ME collects lightly used professional clothing, then distributes it at events planned near times when medical students are most likely to need it. To date, the club has held four events. Post-event surveying has revealed that a majority of students who participated felt worried over finances and had trouble affording professional clothing.
Cooper explained that an initiative like T4ME has the potential to increase awareness about the financial challenges medical students face, since they're not yet recovering the substantial cost of years of education. “I didn’t realize this before T4ME existed, but around 30% of our medical students have some degree of financial insecurity,” she said.
Cooper added that the initiative has sparked conversations with other faculty about how many students could be struggling financially.
“We have a food pantry that about 30% of our students utilize on a regular basis,” she said. “Since the situation for some of our students has become common knowledge within the department, I personally have been donating more to the food pantry, and I suspect that others have, as well.”
The most recent T4ME event, held in late March, was co-sponsored by the Department of Surgery Diversity Taskforce and the Environmental Health and Medicine Student Interest Group. The team expanded upon the already successful diversion of waste through repurposing clothing. Participating students were given blue upcycled shopping bags made by fourth-year medical student Hannah Spotts from the usually discarded wrap on surgical instrument trays in the operating room.
“In the OR when we get instruments, they come wrapped in coated blue paper or plastic, which we’re not able to recycle here,” said Cooper. “Many hospitals around the country have come up with creative ways to repurpose that material, from making bags, to making blankets that are donated to homeless shelters — all sorts of ideas.”
Cooper cited an article by Eckelman and Sherman stating that U.S. hospitals generate about 14,000 tons of waste per day, and up to 25% of that is plastic. Additionally, an article in the Annals of Surgery reported that ORs typically account for 70% of a hospital's waste.
“This particular material is a percentage of that waste that comes from the OR, but there is blue wrap to dispose of after every case,” Cooper explained. “After I found a pattern online for the bags made from blue wrap, I asked some OR staff to save material for me, and Hannah used it to make the bags.”
According to the organization Practice Greenhealth, blue wrap is “estimated to make up almost 20% of all operating room waste.” The bags made from this material have also inspired conversations between Cooper and students about waste in ORs more generally.
Cooper acknowledged that changing the way ORs deal with waste is not going to be easy. “But hopefully, the more people we have thinking about this and trying to push for it, the more success we’ll have,” she said.
Meanwhile, interest in replicating the T4ME model is growing.
In February, Medical Students for a Sustainable Future (MS4SF), an organization co-founded in 2019 by Natasha Sood, a 2023 graduate of Penn State College of Medicine, hosted its first annual Climate Health Equity Day at George Mason University. Current third-year medical student Asma Khursheed presented a poster highlighting the work she and fellow students, Evelyn Marin, Megan Nguyen, Debi Bhanja, and Molly Piper have done with T4ME.
"Asma's poster generated significant interest from conference participants both for its sustainability benefits and for its value in promoting equity and inclusion," said Cooper, who also participated in a multi-specialty faculty panel discussion about engaging in sustainability work as a faculty physician.
“We're working to increase the conversations around sustainability in our students’ education,” Cooper added. And already, the T4ME initiative is demonstrating how a medical school can incorporate UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 1 (no poverty) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production).
T4ME is currently accepting donations of professional clothing in good condition, including ties, belts, scarves, jackets, etc., but not shoes. Anyone interested in donating should contact Dr. Amanda Cooper at acooper2@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.