Physician Cleveland Clinic Brecksville , Ohio, United States
Disclosure(s):
Amanda M. Artsen, MD: No financial relationships to disclose
Alexandra Melnyk, MD, MEd: No financial relationships to disclose
If Health Care was a country, it would be the largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. Collectively and individually, clinicians can have an incredible influence on how energy and waste are produced, used, and treated at their healthcare institutions, but are often unaware of the magnitude of impact they can have on climate change. The roundtable format is the perfect opportunity to gather clinicians with an interest in this topic, learn from discussion with each other about what has been successful at other institutions, and provide national and local resources to those who have implementation ideas but do not know how to accomplish them.
Dr. Artsen and Dr. Melnyk are passionate about sustainability in medicine. Dr. Artsen researches sustainable mesh materials and aims to transform the field from using petroleum-based plastic meshes to sustainable and biodegradable biomaterials and is on a mission to combat single-use items in health care and laboratories. Dr. Melnyk is a leader in the national group for a Sustainable Future and conducts research on Greening ORs. She has presented her work at AUGS and has been recognized nationally at CleanMed 2022 for her Greening the Urogynecology OR Initiative.
Learning Objectives:
Describe how healthcare affects climate change and climate change affects healthcare
Give concrete examples of the ways in which clinicians can meaningfully decrease the carbon footprint of their care
Identify resources they can use to implement projects they are interested in at their own institution
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