The health care industry is among the most carbon-intensive service sectors in the industrialized world, causing around 4.4 % of the global greenhouse gas emissions. 60-80% of the carbon footprint of healthcare is due to clinical care, while current actions towards carbon-neutral healthcare aim largely on greening buildings and energy consumed in healthcare. CLISHEAT will obtain a detailed breakdown of the footprint of clinical care. With this knowledge, we can focus the development of new health technologies to reduce the carbon footprint. Critically, it is estimated that harmful and low-value treatments compose 32% of the carbon footprint of the health care sector, and increased data may add overdiagnosis. CLISHEAT brings this point to the attention of health technology developers and provide insight how artificial intelligence could be used to prevent overdiagnosis. Finally, climate change is damaging human health. CLISHEAT focuses on developing technologies that will help healthcare sector adapt to the increasing burden caused by the climate change. The focus of Syke researchers will be on assessing the carbon footprints of healthcare and health technologies and identifying measures for decreasing the footprints.
More information available at the Consortium leader (University of Turku) website: https://www.utu.fi/en/university/faculty-of-technology/mechanical-and-materials-engineering/research/materials-in-health-technology
This project has received funding from the European Union (NextGenerationEU instrument) and is funded by the Academy of Finland.