Session Description

While physicians take an oath to “do no harm,” the enormous environmental impact of health care operations in the United States is contributing to the burden of disease and harming the health of patients and communities. The health care sector produces an estimated 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and hospitals consume more than 10 percent of the total energy use of all commercial buildings in the United States. Learn about the environmental impact of the health care sector and opportunities to promote environmentally responsible, climate-smart health care.

Leading hospitals have been working to reduce their environmental impact, and physicians can be powerful champions to support the transition to environmentally sustainable health care. As an article in the AMA Journal of Ethics points out, “physicians and health organizations have obligations to use their influence, expertise, and resources to protect health, which includes promoting sustainability.”

Learning Objectives

• Gain strategies to promote environmentally responsible  climate-smart health care.
• Learn how life cycle analysis can help advance clinically sustainable health care.
• Understand how the U.S. health care sector’s environmental impact contributes to the harming of patient and public health.
• Discover how the sector is taking action under leadership of Health Care without Harm and Practice Greenhealth.

Speakers

Amy Collins, MD
Practicing Emergency Medicine Physician and Health Care Without Harm Physician Engagement Senior Clinical Advisor

Dr. Collins is a practicing emergency medicine physician, health care sustainability professional, and senior clinical advisor for Health Care Without Harm.

Jonathan Slutzman, MD
Emergency Medicine Instructor, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Jonathan Slutzman is an instructor in emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He earned a BSE with honors in civil and environmental engineering from Princeton University, an Intern Engineer certificate from the State of New York, and an MD with distinction in disaster medicine from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Prior to a career in medicine, Slutzman was a consulting environmental engineer, completing projects in a variety of areas within environmental, health, and safety assessment. His academic focus is on the costs, both financial and environmental, of health care.