Telemedicine Use Decreases the Carbon Footprint of the Bariatric Surgery Preoperative Evaluation

Background Healthcare-associated activity accounts for 10% of the United States’ carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. Using telemedicine for bariatric surgery evaluations decreases emissions and reduces patient burden during the multiple required interdisciplinary visits. After adopting telemedicine du...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Obesity surgery 2023-08, Vol.33 (8), p.2527-2532
Main Authors: Sillcox, Rachel, Blaustein, Megan, Khandelwal, Saurabh, Bryant, Mary Kate, Zhu, Jay, Chen, Judy Y
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon dioxide
Carbon footprint
COVID-19
Gastrointestinal surgery
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Original Contributions
Pandemics
Surgery
Telemedicine
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Summary:Background Healthcare-associated activity accounts for 10% of the United States’ carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. Using telemedicine for bariatric surgery evaluations decreases emissions and reduces patient burden during the multiple required interdisciplinary visits. After adopting telemedicine during COVID, our clinic continues to utilize telemedicine for preoperative bariatric evaluations. We evaluated the reduced environmental impact associated with this practice. Methods A retrospective review of all new evaluations for vertical sleeve gastrectomy (SG) or Roux-en Y gastric bypass (RYGB) from 2019 and 2021 was conducted. The 2019 year represents pre-pandemic, in-person evaluations and 2021 represents telemedicine evaluations during the COVID pandemic. Carbon emissions were calculated using the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) validated formula of 404g CO 2 per car-mile. Preoperative evaluation time was calculated from the initial clinic visit to the operation date. Results There were 51 patients in the 2019 cohort and 55 patients in the 2021 cohort. In the 2019 in-person cohort, there was significantly more kg of estimated CO 2 emitted (10,225 vs. 2011.4, p
ISSN:0960-8923
1708-0428
DOI:10.1007/s11695-023-06721-0