A new open access database has been launched which will monitor the environmental impact of different healthcare products and activities.
The database is being developed by Dalhousie University and Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS).
It is estimated that healthcare provision remains a major contribution to the climate crisis accounting for more than five percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
This HealthcareLCA data base services as an up-to-date evidence repository, bringing together new and existing assessments into one publicly accessible location. It currently has over 4,000 environmental impact values for more than 1,400 healthcare products and activities, including equipment, pharmaceuticals, investigations, procedures, services, and overall health systems.
Lead researcher Dr Jonathan Drew, adjunct surgery at Dalhousie University, says:“Countries are increasingly making pledges to achieve sustainable, low carbon health systems. The success of these commitments will depend on having an accurate measure of healthcare’s environmental impacts and making sure that people working within healthcare can access and use that information.”
Senior author Dr Chantelle Rizan, clinical lecturer in sustainable healthcare at BSMS, adds: “HealthcareLCA creates an opportunity for health professionals to learn more about the environmental impacts of healthcare, providing accessible and easy-to-understand evidence for administrators and decision-makers. It will also help researchers find existing studies, identify important research gaps, and create new possibilities for synthesising the available evidence.”
