Until recently, I had never really considered that testing and treatments have an environmental cost. The burden of overuse is not trivial: up to 30% of all tests and treatments we order are unnecessary and an additional 10% are harmful to our patients. I have realized that if I really want to make a difference to my carbon footprint at work, reducing unnecessary care has a greater impact than recycling clinic waste or powering down my computer.
For many years, I failed to recognize the unique potential I had to make a difference to the environment as a clinician, from within my own practice. However, using a planetary health approach in clinical practice not only allows us to reduce environmental impacts but also offers many co-benefits: better health outcomes, lower costs, decreased workload, and a more resilient and sustainable system.
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