The environmental impacts of healthcare are an important factor that should be considered during health technology assessments. This study aims to summarise the evidence that exists about methods to include environmental impacts in health economic evaluations and health technology assessments.
July 2023 marked the hottest month on record, underscoring the urgent need for action on climate change. The imperative to reduce carbon emissions extends to all sectors, including health care, with it being responsible for 5.5% of global emissions. In decarbonizing health care, although much [...]
Climate change should be incorporated in to educational and training programmes for all health professionals to ensure they are able to urgently adapt and transition our health systems to low carbon and low waste models of care and to become climate resilient. However, the uptake [...]
TO THE EDITOR: Given the recognition by the Journal of the urgent need to achieve “net-zero health care,” it is disappointing that low-carbon management options were not mentioned in the recent review by Mosnaim regarding asthma in adults. Asthma management is a carbon hotspot and an important target [...]
Pharmaceuticals account for 19–32% of healthcare greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Paracetamol is a common perioperative analgesic agent. We estimated GHG emissions associated with i.v. and oral formulations of paracetamol used in the perioperative period. Life-cycle assessment of GHG emissions (expressed as carbon dioxide equivalents CO2e) [...]
Health care is a major contributor to climate change, and critical care is one of the sector’s highest carbon emitters. Health economic evaluations form an important component of critical care and may be useful in identifying economically efficient and environmentally sustainable strategies. The purpose of [...]
Correction: Intensive Care Medicine https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-023-07256-9 The original article has been corrected. The Authors apologize for the mistake. In the second paragraph of the second page, the first sentence “When using chemical sterilisation, such as ethyleneoxide gas or glutaraldehyde solution for bronchoscopes, reusable equipment will typically always [...]
Mask induction of anesthesia for pediatric patients has included the use of nitrous oxide since the inception of pediatric anesthesia. However, the use of nitrous oxide precludes adequate preoxygenation. Additionally, pediatric physiology (less Functional Residual Capacity, higher oxygen consumption), increased risk of laryngospasm and lack [...]
A shift in practice by anaesthetists away from anaesthetic gases with high global warming potential towards lower emission techniques (e.g. total intravenous anaesthesia) could result in significant carbon savings for the health system. The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to understand anaesthetists’ perspectives [...]
Many clinicians, concerned about climate change, have focussed their attention onto single-use medical items, given the large amounts of waste they produce. Since the 1990s, the use of single-use items has swelled due to infection control concerns, especially due to the emergence of variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob [...]