Sustainability in Health care- The Digital way!

When Elon musk quotes sustainability and mobility as the future of world.

or the launch of Ola's electric scooter to Zomato's climate conscious delivery.

We must try to ask this question- Why sustainability is important?

SUSTANIABILITY is about the sensible, responsible use of natural resources, in order to reduce depletion and maintain an ecological balance.

Why healthcare needs sustainable practices?

A framework according to the "The triple Bottom line'' concept introduced by John Ellington who argues organizations to become more sustainable must go beyond traditional ''bottom line'' of profit and loss and must integrate environmental and social costs of doing businesses into their corporate accounting structures.

The next futuristic approach , creating an opportunity for investments and progress.

We do know how going digital increases connectivity, approachability, timely care, etc

But one of the greatest realizations healthcare professionals need to reason out , for themselves is going digital is the only way.

If you happen to have not tried going digital in your practices, be prepared to be eliminated form the sustainable practices.

How going digital with practices help you contribute to sustainability?

1.Going digital helps in reducing CO2 emissions and Paper consumption:

When the Doctor-patient- pharmacy relationship, shift from typical paper/ face to face interaction, substituting with electronic messages for means we are having a chance to save on papers, emissions from transport, and cost.

India is leading place of worst congestions in traffic, where nearly a number a people loose their lives being stuck on traffic jams. Going digital paves a path for instant touch with a healthcare provider and broadens the scope of timely intervention.

A recent study undertaken by Plymouth University measured the waste generated by the team of a general dental practice, with paper and nitrile gloves being the two most commonly disposed items within the dental practice.

A simple examination via digital services can help immensely in reducing usage of paper and nitrile gloves.

Allowing people to consult online can provide a better service and also save the 15% of the carbon footprint that is accounted for by patient and staff travel: one in 20 journeys on roads is associated with the hospitals.

?

2.The digital nudge – behavior change benefiting health and environment

Increasing cases of diabetes and heart problems, where almost every 1 person out of 6 are prone to metabolic diseases.

Unhealthy diet of junk food ,untimely eating , over eating not only affects you but also the environment. Junk food to very quarter of food you gallop unnecessary where statists says in general the problem of over eating - with increasing number of people having binge disorders to compulsive over eating disorders.

This unnecessary eating also adversely affect environment in terms of consumption of land, its consumption of water, and emission of green house gases.

The digital nudge: Multiple fitness wearable or health trackers are using this technique of digital nudge where the behavior modifications apps takes in your details of how are you feeling, reminds of food habits and mood changes, helps you monitor your patterns.

There is psychological ping to make conscious decisions.

Tracking of consumed calories, with a?widespread routine plan and a six-month follow-up of patients. They help in calculating the steps you walked, calories you consumed, personalized glycemic responses of your body to food items you consume, digital HB1c calculator are just a few examples of how healthcare can be digitized and create an instant awareness to people.

3. Unnecessary Over-Prescription of drugs- (medicine waste):

A new emerging major, public and environmental health concern is increasing due to waste generated by used or unused medicine/home used personal care products.

At least 30 percent of antibiotics prescribed in the United States are unnecessary, according to new data published today in the?Journal of the American Medical Association?(JAMA) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with Pew Charitable Trusts and other public health and medical experts.

The most common reasons for over prescription by doctors was fear of malpractice (84.7%), Patient pressure /request (59.0%), and difficulty accessing medical records(38.2%).

If you breakdown the above reasons of over-prescription , we realize the base of this problem, like in terms of lack of good communication, no single platform for accessing medical records, fear of doctor in malpractice -results due to less information or inadequate information delivered.

With follow-ups being so easy with virtual settings monitoring patients over a time period, compared to instant consultation and treatment. EHR systems and AI specifically giving personalized treatment plans, to helping physicians to garner timely interventions.

4. Moving from reactive care to proactive care:

Today our healthcare system needs to transform from reactive to proactive care.

For most part system was not designed to prevent onset of disease but instead diagnose and treat an illness.

The reactive care is both expensive and to some extent ineffective in meeting today's population demand.

The idea is trillion of dollars can be saved by pivoting healthcare ecosystem to preventive care. Smart health technology could accelerate from reactive to proactive care. Built with help of artificial intelligence, can help automate aspects of healthcare and provide clinicians with real time alerts predictive alerts.

with focus changing to preventive care, less number of emergency room visits will occur, a reduced emergency room visits will impact environment in terms of use of non-renewable resources of energy.

Apart from acknowledging above advantages of going digital we cannot for sure ignore the increasing risk of e- waste management, which has been the fastest growing category of trash.

A collaborative way of waste management with everyone making the right steps – no matter how small those are – to make our planet more sustainable.