EyeSustain calls on physicians, surgical manufacturers to aid sustainability efforts
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Key takeaways:
- EyeSustain is a global coalition with the goal of improving sustainability efforts in eye care.
- Ophthalmologists can aid sustainability efforts by educating surgeons and staff.
SAN DIEGO — Health care providers should be “concerned and alarmed” that WHO has declared climate change as the single greatest health threat to humanity, according to a speaker here.
“The sad irony is that we, the global health care sector, generate a disproportionately high amount of carbon emissions, including nearly 10% of all CO2 emissions in the U.S.,” David F. Chang, MD, chair of EyeSustain’s advisory board, said at the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting.
Image: Adobe Stock
Launched in 2022, EyeSustain is a global coalition aimed at improving ophthalmology’s impact on climate change and educating the profession on how to operate more sustainably. During a discussion of the coalition’s goals, John A. Hovanesian, MD, FACS, who leads EyeSustain’s industry initiatives, said that surgical manufacturers have a role to play in sustainability efforts.
“The good news is that the companies who sell us the equipment and supplies that we use in surgery are every bit as interested in sustainability as we surgeons and our staff are,” Hovanesian said. “At EyeSustain, we formed a think tank that brings together the most important decision-makers and the largest companies to brainstorm with us physicians how we can innovate for sustainability.”
During the discussion, physicians were invited to take the EyeSustain surgical facility pledge, which includes the following tenets:
- educate surgeons and staff about the impact of operating room waste and sustainability;
- regularly reevaluate surgical pack standardization;
- use multidose bottles of topical medication on multiple patients if possible;
- assess the need for patient gowns and full body draping;
- regularly reassess options for reusable vs. single-use products and instruments;
- assess the feasibility of alcohol-based surgical scrub for presurgical antisepsis; and
- institute or update recycling strategies.
“It’s really no surprise that our trainees and young ophthalmologists are a major part of these efforts, as these topics will become increasingly relevant for generations to come,” Aakriti Garg Shukla, MD, chair of EyeSustain’s young eye surgeons subcommittee, said. “We invite everyone, especially the early-career folks but also the senior people who have seen changes over time, to join our group.”
Collapse
Chang DF, et al. EyeSustain discussion. Presented at: American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery meeting; May 5-8, 2023; San Diego.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts