Transition to telemedicine has come with considerable reductions in carbon emissions: Study
The use of telemedicine reduced carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of up to 130,000 gas-fueled cars per month in 2023, a new study has determined.
These findings suggest that telemedicine could have a modest but tangible contribution to curbing the effects of climate change, according to the study, published in the American Journal of Managed Care on Tuesday.
'As Congress debates whether to extend or modify pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities, our results provide important evidence for policymakers to consider,' John Mafi, an associate professor-in-residence at the University of California Los Angeles's David Geffen School of Medicine, said in a statement.
Specifically, those considerations could focus on the idea 'that telemedicine has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of US health care delivery,' Mafi added.
Today, the U.S. health system is responsible for about 9 percent of domestic greenhouse gas emission — worsening the impacts of climate change and thereby posing a possible threat to human health, according to the authors.
Meanwhile, because the transportation sector accounts for more than 28 percent of the country's total emissions, the authors argued telemedicine would have the potential to decrease the environmental footprint of healthcare services.
To draw their conclusions, the researchers used the existing Milliman MedInsight Emerging Experience database to quantify almost 1.5 million telemedicine visits, including 66,000 in rural regions, from April 1 to June 30, 2023.
Ultimately, they estimated that between 741,000 and 1.35 million of those visits occurred instead of in-person appointments.
As a result of that shift to telemedicine, the researchers estimated carbon emissions reductions of between 21.4 million and 47.6 million kilograms per month.
That quantity is approximately equivalent to cutting the carbon dioxide generated by 61,000 to 130,000 gas-powered vehicles each month or by recycling 1.8 million to 4 million trash bags, according to the study.
The researchers acknowledged that there were some limitations to their findings, including the fact that the results were based on a single, easy-to-access resource rather than a random selection. They also noted that telemedicine use has dropped since the end of the pandemic — potentially leading to overestimations regarding the emissions averted.
Nonetheless, they maintained that telemedicine does provide a significant chance to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to therefore bring benefits to human health.
'The health care sector contributes significantly to the global carbon footprint,' co-senior author A. Mark Fendrick, director of the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan, said in a statement.
'The environmental impact of medical care delivery can be reduced when lower-carbon options, such as telemedicine, are substituted for other services that produce more emissions,' Fendrick added.
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