Did you know that the United States consumes 40% of the world's medical devices? Or that the health care sector accounts for as much as 10% of the national carbon footprint?
These were some of the key topics discussed at the Reducing Clinical Waste at UCSF: Learning and Networking event.
The event, which was hosted by the Medical Waste Subcommittee of the Academic Senate Committee on Sustainability, was a symposium of insightful presentations and engaging discussions from some of UCSF’s most innovative clinicians and sustainability thinkers.
"We're hoping that by exchanging ideas, people will build connections where they can continue working together in the future and then also have a bigger network of people that they can bring ideas to or ask for advice,” Liz Greenwood, Senior Public Policy Analyst for the San Francisco Division Office of the Academic Senate, said.
The event was supported by the Office of Sustainability as part of a larger effort to identify areas of impact and the most advantageous time to move change forward.
“The Office of Sustainability and FAS are regular participants in the Academic Senate Committee on Sustainability; it’s an important and frequent opportunity for conversation between faculty and administration. The committee leadership is driving what is important from the faculty perspective on issues like reducing medical waste and how to work with administration to realize these visions,” Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Director of the Office of Sustainability, Kira Stoll said.
Moving Upstream
Dr. Seema Gandhi, an anesthesiologist and medical director of sustainability at UCSF Health, gave the keynote address, sharing the interconnectedness of climate care and healthcare and some of the accomplishments made to reduce health waste at UCSF.
In her time at UCSF, Gandhi has spearheaded several projects to address waste and carbon emissions such as replacing disposable isolation (iso) gowns with reusable ones and reducing blue towel and foam usage for kidney transplants.
Gandhi has also worked to decrease carbon emissions that come from anesthetic gases by eliminating the usage of Desflurane, minimizing nitrous oxide. Most recently, she adapted a sustainable anesthesia model that uses reusable breathing circuits.
But for Ghandi, the best way to reduce waste is to focus on preventative medicine.
“If there’s one message that I have for the group here, is as we look at waste, let’s look upstream,” Gandhi said during her speech, “And the biggest upstream would be to invest in primary care, to make sure that patients don’t even get to the hospital.”
Building Collective Action
Hospitalist Monisha Bhatia, MD, JD, MPH, worked with Ghandi on the reusable gown project, was excited to be at the event.
“It's really wonderful to see all the familiar faces who I've seen along the way as I've gotten more ingrained in the sustainability culture. I really thought that what [Ghandi] was saying around helping more people find time to work on their [sustainability] issues within their own practice areas is really important. And I'm looking forward to seeing what else we can do to support careers in sustainability for more people.”
Hilary Ong, MD, Assistant Professor in Pediatric Emergency, has been doing sustainability work for six years, working to bring to light how exposure to medical plastics can cause patient health and safety issues.
“I see my primary motivation as protecting kids through mitigation efforts. Climate change leads to poor health outcomes, especially for kids. Within that space, my hyper focus is on clinical sustainability; how can I, as a clinician, do no harm in clinical work and across a larger healthcare system like UCSF?”
For Ong, this event marked a significant step in establishing connections between various areas of sustainability.
“I think this has been a much-needed event, so thank you to the Sustainability Office and the Medical Waste team, Seema’s team, who organized this. From students, to clinicians, to staff, to faculty, a lot of us are working in our own sphere of influence around sustainability…but I think we need to do it in a more organized and structured way,” Ong said. “With this leadership, I’m hopeful that we will continue to build.”
