Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Canadian Institute for Climate Choices, Vancouver, Canada.
Med Teach. 2021 Nov;43(11):1302-1308. doi: 10.1080/0142159X.2021.1944612. Epub 2021 Jul 6.
Each spring, thousands of Canadian medical students travel across the country to interview for residency positions, a process known as the CaRMS tour. Despite the large scale of travel, the CaRMS tour has received little environmental scrutiny.
To estimate the national carbon footprint of flights associated with the CaRMS tour, as well as reductions in emissions achievable by transitioning to alternative models.
We developed a three-question online commuter survey to collect the unique travel itineraries of applicants in the 2020 CaRMS tour. We calculated the emissions associated with all flights and modelled expected emissions for two alternative in-person interview models, and two virtual interview models.
We collected 960 responses out of 2943 applicants across all 17 Canadian medical schools. We calculated the carbon footprint of flights for the 2020 CaRMS as 4239 tCOe (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents), averaging 1.44 tCOe per applicant. The average applicant's tour emissions represent 35.1% of the average Canadian's annual household carbon footprint, and the emissions of 26.7% of respondents exceeded their entire annual '2050 carbon budget.' Centralized in-person interviews could reduce emissions by 13.7% to 74.7%, and virtual interviews by at least 98.4% to 99.9%.
Mandatory in-person residency interviews in Canada contribute significant emissions and reflect a culture of emissions-intensive practices. Considerable decarbonization of the CaRMS tour is possible, and transitioning to virtual interviews could eliminate the footprint almost entirely.
每年春天，成千上万的加拿大医学生都会在全国各地旅行，参加住院医师实习职位的面试，这个过程被称为 CaRMS 巡回赛。尽管旅行规模庞大，但 CaRMS 巡回赛几乎没有受到环境方面的审查。
估计与 CaRMS 巡回赛相关的航班的国家碳足迹，以及通过过渡到替代模式实现减排的情况。
我们开发了一个三问题的在线通勤者调查，以收集 2020 年 CaRMS 巡回赛申请人的独特旅行行程。我们计算了所有航班的排放量，并为两种替代的面对面面试模型和两种虚拟面试模型建模了预期的排放量。
我们从加拿大 17 所医学院的 2943 名申请人中收集了 960 份回复。我们计算出 2020 年 CaRMS 航班的碳足迹为 4239 tCOe（二氧化碳当量吨），平均每位申请人为 1.44 tCOe。每位申请人的巡回赛排放量占加拿大普通家庭年碳足迹的 35.1%，26.7%的受访者的排放量超过了他们的整个年度“2050 年碳预算”。集中的面对面面试可以减少 13.7%至 74.7%的排放量，而虚拟面试则至少可以减少 98.4%至 99.9%的排放量。
在加拿大，强制性的住院医师实习面试会产生大量的排放，反映了一种排放密集型实践的文化。CaRMS 巡回赛的大量脱碳是可能的，并且过渡到虚拟面试几乎可以完全消除足迹。
