Health Care in a Climate Crisis: Estimating greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts of surgical procedures and hospital operations

我们都重视并依赖医疗保健系统。它占加拿大GDP的11%以上，占所有省和地区支出的近40%。几十年来，我们目睹了我国人口健康方面的显著进展，使加拿大成为世界上最健康的国家之一，部分原因是我们能够获得高质量的保健服务。不幸的是，医疗保健的提供导致大量温室气体（GHG）的释放，包括二氧化碳和其他导致气候变化的污染物。据估计，医疗保健的温室气体排放量与航空业的排放量一样多，每年约为850万吨，占加拿大温室气体排放总量的5%。科学证据非常清楚地表明，目前的温室气体排放模式正在促成气候紧急情况。因此，如果我们能够开发和评估工具来帮助提供既能改善我们的健康又能降低温室气体排放的医疗保健，对社会有巨大的潜在好处。该研究计划将汇集私人和学术研究人员，临床医生和医疗保健管理人员，应用最先进的方法和工具来估计医疗保健提供过程中的温室气体排放，并制定，实施和评估创新战略，以确保高质量地提供健康服务，对环境的影响很低或最小。

We all value and depend on the health care system. It accounts for more than 11% of Canadian GDP and almost 40% of all provincial and territorial spending. Over several decades we have witnessed remarkable gains in the health of our population making Canada one of the healthiest countries in the world, in part due to the quality and ease with which we can access high quality health care. Unfortunately the delivery of health care results in the release of a large amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs), including carbon dioxide and other pollutants that contribute to climate change. Some estimates say that GHG emissions from health care are as much as those emitted by the aviation sector, approximately 8.5 megatonnes per year or 5% of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions. The scientific evidence is very clear that current patterns of greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to a climate emergency. Thus there is a huge potential benefit to society if we can develop and evaluate tools to help with delivering health care that will both improve our health and lower greenhouse gas emissions. This research program will bring together private and academic researchers, clinicians, and health care executives to apply state-of-the-art methods and tools to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from the delivery of health care, and to develop, implement and evaluate innovative strategies to ensure high quality delivery of health services with low or minimal environmental impact.