When patients use telehealth or visit health care centers closer to home, the overall climate impact of health care can be reduced. NoSystem images/Getty Images/E+ hide caption Cancer patients often prefer the convenience of video visits over in-person medical visits. A new study reveals another benefit – telehealth reduces greenhouse-gas emissions.
By moving online all oncology visits that need not be done in person and by allowing patients to have blood drawn and other tests and procedures performed at clinics closer to their homes, researchers estimated they could reduce nationwide carbon-dioxide emissions generated as a result of cancer care by 33%, the study published Monday in JAMA Oncology found. “Tele-medical and decentralized cancer care does provide a large relative reduction in emissions,” said lead author Dr. Andrew Hantel, a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute oncologist.
“It’s potentially a gain downstream for human health and planetary health.” Health care generated 8.5% of U.
S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2018, prior research shows. A growing number of health care providers see the climate crisis as a health crisis.
They are working to reduce operating-room waste , to find solutions like more eco-friendly asthma inhalers and in general to educate the medical community about the need to conserve resources. The new study is “a fantastic eye-opener to give credit to the whole idea that health care is a significant emitter of greenhouse gas emissions,” sa.
