Assessing the carbon footprint of digital health interventions: a scoping review

Lokmic-Tomkins, Z (通讯作者),Monash Univ, Sch Nursing & Midwifery, Fac Med Nursing & Hlth Sci, 35 Rainforest Walk, Melbourne, Vic 3800, Australia.
2022-11-14
Objective Integration of environmentally sustainable digital health interventions requires robust evaluation of their carbon emission life-cycle before implementation in healthcare. This scoping review surveys the evidence on available environmental assessment frameworks, methods, and tools to evaluate the carbon footprint of digital health interventions for environmentally sustainable healthcare. Materials and Methods Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid). PsycINFO (Ovid), CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus (which indexes IEEE Xplore, Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science and ACM databases), Compendex, and Inspec databases were searched with no time or language constraints. The Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA_SCR), Joanna Briggs Scoping Review Framework, and template for intervention description and replication (TiDiER) checklist were used to structure and report the findings. Results From 3299 studies screened, data was extracted from 13 full-text studies. No standardised methods or validated tools were identified to systematically determine the environmental sustainability of a digital health intervention over its full life-cycle from conception to realisation. Most studies (n = 8) adapted publicly available carbon calculators to estimate telehealth travel-related emissions. Others adapted these tools to examine the environmental impact of electronic health records (n = 2), e-prescriptions and e-referrals (n = 1), and robotic surgery (n = 1). One study explored optimising the information system electricity consumption of telemedicine. No validated systems-based approach to evaluation and validation of digital health interventions could be identified. Conclusion There is a need to develop standardised, validated methods and tools for healthcare environments to assist stakeholders to make informed decisions about reduction of carbon emissions from digital health interventions.
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL INFORMATICS ASSOCIATION
卷号:29|期号:12|页码:2128-2139
ISSN:1067-5027|收录类别:SCIE
语种
英语
来源机构
Monash University; University of Regina; University of British Columbia; University of Melbourne; Monash University; University of Turku; University of Turku; Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla; Flinders University South Australia
被引频次(WOS)
2
被引频次(其他)
2
180天使用计数
5
2013以来使用计数
5
EISSN
1527-974X
出版年
2022-11-14
DOI
10.1093/jamia/ocac196
学科领域
循证公共卫生
关键词
carbon emissions environmental sustainability digital health technologies assessment methods and tools
WOS学科分类
Computer Science, Information Systems Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications Health Care Sciences & Services Information Science & Library Science Medical Informatics