January 12th 2023
Home health services cut emissions in the US
Telehealth services could help to address the healthcare sector’s carbon footprint according to a new study which found they cut costs and reduced patient carbon emissions.
Research conducted by the University of California studied data from five university health care systems over the pandemic’s first two years and revealed substantial carbon and financial savings.
The study found that patients who used telehealth services, where they can be treated or advised by a medical practitioner virtually, slashed the need to drive by 53,664,391 miles, which equates to 113 round trips from Earth to the Moon. Additionally, the digital service overall saved an estimated $33,540,244 on travel-related costs and 204 years on travel time.
Broken down, experts discovered one patient who chose to use a telehealth service avoided travelling 17.6 miles, spending around 35 minutes travelling to an in-person visit and paying an estimated $11 for travel expenses.
Likewise, researchers found CO2 emissions had reduced by an estimated 21,466 metric tons over the two years due to fewer vehicle trips.
Lead author of the study, Sristi Sharma, said: ‘Our study documented the many benefits of utilising telehealth for ambulatory visits. It is the first, large-scale study to evaluate the round-trip distance, time, cost-saving, and greenhouse gas emissions prevented from telehealth use during the pandemic.’
The team looked at data from health systems from Davis, San Francisco, LA, Irvine, and San Diego. Experts calculated the round-up trip distance, travel time, travel costs, injuries, fatalities avoided, and greenhouse gas emissions that patients would have generated had they gone for in-person appointments.
Serving close to 40 million people, the state-wide university system reported 16.8 million outpatient visits between January 2020 and December 2021, of which 18% were telehealth visits.
Following on from the study, published in the Journal of Telemedicine and eHealth, researchers claimed the digital service to be safe and cost effective, recommending it to be used in healthcare even after pandemic precautions have been lifted.
According to data reported by IBISWorld in October 2022, the market size of Telehealth data is expected to rise by 11.4% in the UK following the market increasing by 20% in the past five years, signalling a keen interest.
Photo by National Cancer Institute