https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S2451993618301701<\/a>) on healthcare waste as an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University, draws on his experience studying the waste from eye surgeries in the U.S. and India. When comparing the exact same procedure, Namburar found that U.S. hospitals produce significantly more waste per eye surgery than do hospitals in India, with no difference in surgical outcomes.<\/p>\nThe appeal of disposables is fueled in part by efficiency, higher costs of reprocessing reusable supplies, and the simplicity of keeping treatment practices sterile. Out of concern for the risk of infection transmission between patients, the Food and Drug Administration has recently approved the use of disposable endoscopes.<\/p>\n
\u201cInfection transmission is a real problem, but on the grand scale this is a very rare event,\u201d explains Pohl. \u201cThe question is whether a single-use device is the only solution to reducing the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, large single-use instruments and their sterile packaging generate considerable solid waste. Their study shows that transitioning exclusively to disposable endoscopes would amount to a 25 percent increase in annual waste mass from endoscopy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to keep a global perspective and take the environmental impact into account when considering the harms and benefits of endoscopic procedures or healthcare in general,\u201d says Pohl. \u201cCost-effectiveness analyses should not just consider the financial cost to the society, but also the environmental cost and the potential impact on health.\u201d<\/p>\n
With an eye on sustainability, Pohl sought out Cushman-Roisin to understand the true \u201clife cycle\u201d of single-use medical supplies. By studying the total environmental impact from the production, transport, utilization, and disposal of single-use endoscopes, the researchers look to capture a more complete carbon footprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an engineer who cares about the impact of technology on the environment, I am very interested in sustainable design,\u201d explains Cushman-Roisin, whose expertise crisscrosses industrial ecology and environmental engineering. \u201cSustainable design begins by understanding the harm that our technological activities inflict on the environment in order to discern the particular aspects that require priority attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pohl and Cushman-Roisin agree that solid waste generation is one of a number of important metrics. Other environmental consequences also exist upstream and downstream in healthcare, including manufacturing impacts, air pollutant emissions from incineration of infectious waste, and the disposal of radioactive medical waste.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the healthcare system contributes substantially to the global carbon footprint, we in healthcare can no longer ignore how our actions impact the environment, which in turn adversely impact health outcomes,\u201d says Damianos, who contributed to the study while at Geisel and is now an internal medicine resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is imperative that health systems critically examine their energy usage and waste production, and invest in more sustainable practices,\u201d Damianos urges. \u201cLeading the charge should be the procedure-heavy specialties who, by becoming more sustainable, can make a considerable impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waste abounds in healthcare. By building a body of research that demonstrates the environmental effects of single-use supplies, the goal is to discover ways to shrink the carbon footprint of medical procedures, likely through a combination of more economical supply usage and increased utilization of reusable materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur hope is that this research can serve as a proof-of-concept that waste from endoscopies, and indeed all procedures, can be significantly reduced while maintaining patient safety,\u201d Namburar says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Researchers at Dartmouth\u2019s Geisel School of Medicine and Thayer School of Engineering are studying the environmental impact of single-use medical supplies, focusing on the procedure-intense specialty of gastroenterology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":14637,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[1009,1008],"class_list":["post-14634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-improving-lives","category-news","tag-gastroenterology","tag-medical-waste","author-188"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/MedicalWaste_featured2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-3O2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14634"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14638,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14634\/revisions\/14638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}