A Comparison of Environmental Impacts Between Reusable and Disposable Flexible Laryngoscopes.

Introduction: There is increasing prevalence of single-use flexible laryngoscopes in Otolaryngology. This study aims to quantify and compare the environmental outcomes of single-use disposable flexible laryngoscopes (SUD-Ls) and reusable flexible laryngoscope (R-Ls).

Methods: The ISO 14040 standardized Life Cycle Assessment (LCAs) was utilized to estimate the environmental footprint of SUD-L and R-L.

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of a U.S. Hospital-based Radiology Practice.

Background Climate change, driven primarily by human-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, poses major risks to human health. Health care contributes 8.5% of GHG emissions in the United States.

Analysis of intraocular lens packaging weight and waste.

Purpose: To analyze waste from intraocular lens (IOL) packaging across a variety of brands.

Setting: Private clinical practice.

Design: Prospective weight and composition analysis of all elements of unopened packages of IOLs sold in the United States-both preloaded and non-preloaded.

Quantification of the environmental impact of radiotherapy and associated secondary human health effects: a multi-institutional retrospective analysis and simulation.

Background: The health-care industry is a substantial contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet the specific environmental impact of radiotherapy, a cornerstone of cancer treatment, remains under-explored. We aimed to quantify the emissions associated with the delivery of radiotherapy in the USA and propose a framework for reducing the environmental impact of oncology care.

Methods: In this multi-institutional retrospective analysis and simulation study, we conducted a lifecycle assessment of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) for ten anatomical disease sites, adhering to the International Organization for Standardization's standards ISO 14040 and ISO 14044.

A Life Cycle Assessment of Reusable and Disposable Surgical Caps.

Introduction: Surgical cap attire plays an important role in creating a safe and sterile environment in procedural suites, thus the choice of reusable versus disposable caps has become an issue of much debate. Given the lack of evidence for differences in surgical site infection (SSI) risk between the two, selecting the cap option with a lower carbon footprint may reduce the environmental impact of surgical procedures. However, many institutions continue to recommend the use of disposable bouffant caps.

The Environmental Impacts of Electronic Medical Records Versus Paper Records at a Large Eye Hospital in India: Life Cycle Assessment Study.

Background: Health care providers worldwide are rapidly adopting electronic medical record (EMR) systems, replacing paper record-keeping systems. Despite numerous benefits to EMRs, the environmental emissions associated with medical record-keeping are unknown. Given the need for urgent climate action, understanding the carbon footprint of EMRs will assist in decarbonizing their adoption and use.

Sustainable Purchasing Practices: A Comparison of Single-use and Reusable Pulse Oximeters in the Emergency Department.

Background: Delivering healthcare requires significant resources and creates waste that pollutes the environment, contributes to the climate crisis, and harms human health. Prior studies have generally shown durable, reusable medical devices to be environmentally superior to disposables, but this has not been investigated for pulse oximetry probes.

Objective: Our goal was to compare the daily carbon footprint of single-use and reusable pulse oximeters in the emergency department (ED).

Evaluating the Environmental Impact of Radiation Therapy Using Life Cycle Assessments: A Critical Review.

Concurrent increases in global cancer burden and the climate crisis pose an unprecedented threat to public health and human well-being. Today, the health care sector greatly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, with the future demand for health care services expected to rise. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an internationally standardized tool that analyzes the inputs and outputs of products, processes, and systems to quantify associated environmental impacts.

Telemedicine and the environment: life cycle environmental emissions from in-person and virtual clinic visits.

Concern over climate change is growing in the healthcare space, and telemedicine has been rapidly expanding since the start of the COVID19 pandemic. Understanding the various sources of environmental emissions from clinic visits-both virtual and in-person-will help create a more sustainable healthcare system. This study uses a Life Cycle Assessment with retrospective clinical data from Stanford Health Care (SHC) in 2019-2021 to determine the environmental emissions associated with in-person and virtual clinic visits.

How Ophthalmologists Can Decarbonize Eye Care: A Review of Existing Sustainability Strategies and Steps Ophthalmologists Can Take.

Topic: Understanding approaches to sustainability in cataract surgery and their risks and benefits.

Clinical Relevance: In the United States, health care is responsible for approximately 8.5% of greenhouse gas (GHG), and cataract surgery is one of the most commonly performed surgical procedures.

Conservation Practices for Personal Protective Equipment: A Systematic Review with Focus on Lower-Income Countries.

During the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) necessitated unprecedented and non-validated approaches to conserve PPE at healthcare facilities, especially in high income countries where single-use disposable PPE was ubiquitous. Our team conducted a systematic literature review to evaluate historic approaches for conserving single-use PPE, expecting that lower-income countries or developing contexts may already be uniquely conserving PPE. However, of the 50 included studies, only 3 originated from middle-income countries and none originated from low-income countries.

Environmental Impact of Prostate Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Transrectal Ultrasound Guided Prostate Biopsy.

Background: Reducing low-value clinical care is an important strategy to mitigate environmental pollution caused by health care.

Objective: To estimate the environmental impacts associated with prostate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and prostate biopsy.

Design, Setting, And Participants: We performed a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment of prostate biopsy.

Life Cycle Assessment in Orthopedics.

Covid-19 has led to an increase in the use of PPE, gowns, masks, sanitizers, air circulators, and much more, all contributing to an increase in medical waste. Waste generation is one issue. Emissions are another.

Carbon Emissions from Overuse of U.S. Health Care: Medical and Ethical Problems.

The United States health care industry is the second largest in the world, expending an estimated 479 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide per year, nearly 8 percent of the country's total emissions. The importance of carbon reduction in health care is slowly being accepted. However, efforts to "green" health care are incomplete since they generally focus on buildings and structures.

Addressing the environmental sustainability of eye health-care delivery: a scoping review.

The demand for eye care-the most common medical speciality in some countries-is increasing globally due to both demographic change and the development of eye health-care services in low-income and middle-income countries. This expansion of service provision needs to be environmentally sustainable. We conducted a scoping review to establish the nature and extent of the literature describing the environmental costs of delivering eye-care services, identify interventions to diminish the environmental impact of eye care, and identify key sustainability themes that are not yet being addressed.

Waste audits in healthcare: A systematic review and description of best practices.

Healthcare generates large amounts of waste, harming both environmental and human health. Waste audits are the standard method for measuring and characterizing waste. This is a systematic review of healthcare waste audits, describing their methods and informing more standardized auditing and reporting.