Purohit Amy, Smith James, Hibble Arthur
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Hughes Hall College, Cambridge, UK.
Future Healthc J. 2021 Mar;8(1):e85-e91. doi: 10.7861/fhj.2020-0080.
In the rapidly progressing field of telemedicine, there is a multitude of evidence assessing the effectiveness and financial costs of telemedicine projects; however, there is very little assessing the environmental impact despite the increasing threat of the climate emergency. This report provides a systematic review of the evidence on the carbon footprint of telemedicine. The identified papers unanimously report that telemedicine does reduce the carbon footprint of healthcare, primarily by reduction in transport-associated emissions. The carbon footprint savings range between 0.70-372 kg COe per consultation. However, these values are highly context specific. The carbon emissions produced from the use of the telemedicine systems themselves were found to be very low in comparison to emissions saved from travel reductions. This could have wide implications in reducing the carbon footprint of healthcare services globally. In order for telemedicine services to be successfully implemented, further research is necessary to determine context-specific considerations and potential rebound effects.
在快速发展的远程医疗领域，有大量证据评估远程医疗项目的有效性和财务成本；然而，尽管气候紧急情况的威胁日益增加，但评估其环境影响的证据却非常少。本报告对远程医疗碳足迹的证据进行了系统综述。已识别的论文一致报告称，远程医疗确实减少了医疗保健的碳足迹，主要是通过减少与交通相关的排放。每次会诊的碳足迹节省量在0.70 - 372千克二氧化碳当量之间。然而，这些数值高度依赖具体情况。与因减少出行而节省的排放量相比，使用远程医疗系统本身产生的碳排放量非常低。这可能对全球减少医疗保健服务的碳足迹具有广泛影响。为了成功实施远程医疗服务，有必要进行进一步研究，以确定具体情况下的考虑因素和潜在的反弹效应。
