Telemedicine care for cancer could help ease global warming Cancer care in the U.S. could generate 33% less emissions if it shifted to telemedicine care Emissions reductions could be even higher in different parts of the country TUESDAY, June 4, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Telemedicine visits for cancer care could help save the planet while also making things easier on patients, a new study has found.
Nationwide, cancer care could generate 33% less greenhouse gas emissions if it shifted to telemedicine from the traditional model of in-patient care, researchers reported June 3 in the journal JAMA Oncology . The findings were simultaneously presented at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Boston. "While health care in the United States provides health benefits to many people, it generates substantial amounts of greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change and inadvertently harm health," said co-lead researcher Dr.
Andrew Hantel . He's a faculty member of leukemia and population sciences at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. For the study, researchers calculated the amount of carbon dioxide emitted each day at Dana-Farber during two time periods -- between March and December 2020, when the pandemic prompted a shift to telemedicine, and from March 2015 to February 2020, when most visits occurred in person.
Emission sources were as varied as driving to the hospital, taking an elevator, using the bathroom, rubbing with hand sanitizer and usin.
