SEPTEMBER 21, 2023

Facing the Environmental Impact of Endoscopies

Waste, carbon emissions are high in the endoscopy suite. How do we reduce the impacts of these vital procedures?

Some 8.5% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States are generated by healthcare systems, with gastroenterology making an outsized contribution to the healthcare sector’s impact on the environment. Some GI experts are beginning to sound the alarm about this problem and encouraging their peers to do something about it.

Heiko Pohl, MD, a professor at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, in Lebanon, N.H., has come to a painful understanding about the impact of his work on