Telemedicine had an impact on carbon emissions equivalent to reducing up to 130,000 car trips each month in 2023

This story was written by Enrique Rivero and originally published by the UCLA public relations office

Telemedicine use in 2023 reduced monthly carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of up to 130,000 gas operated vehicles, suggesting it could have a positive effect on climate change, UCLA and Michigan led research finds.

The findings, published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Managed Care, suggest that telemedicine could have a modest but noticeable impact on the environment by decreasing the number of vehicles traveling to and from medical appointments.

They could also have policy implications, says co-senior author John N. Mafi, M.D., associate professor-in-residence of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

“As Congress debates whether to extend or modify pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities, our results provide important evidence for policymakers to consider, namely that telemedicine has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of US health care delivery,” Mafi said.

The United States health system now contributes about 9%, and transportation comprises about 29%, of greenhouse emissions in the country, the researchers write in the paper.

The researchers used de-identified data from the Milliman MedInsight Emerging Experience database to quantify nearly 1.5 million telemedicine visits, including about 66,000 in rural areas, during the April 1 through June 30, 2023 study period.

They estimate that between 741,000 and 1.35 million of those were substitutes for in-person visits. 

Extrapolating from these calculations, the researchers estimate that CO2 emissions were reduced by between 21.4 million and 47.6 million kg each month in the U.S. due to telemedicine use, which translates to the amount produced by 61,000 to 130,000 gas powered vehicles or recycling 1.8 million to 4 million trash bags.

"The health care sector contributes significantly to the global carbon footprint,” said A. Mark Fendrick, M.D., professor of medicine and director of Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan and the study’s co-senior author. 

“Our findings suggest that the environmental impact of medical care delivery can be reduced when lower carbon options, such as telemedicine, are substituted for other services that produce more emissions."

The researchers note some limitations to their findings. 

Their sampling method was based on data that was from a single, easy to access source rather than a random selection, so the findings may not represent the broader population or account for regional variations. 

Also, driving distances and vehicle market share were based on data sources from before 2023, though driving distances to in-person care were not likely to differ much from what they were prior to that year. 

Finally, telemedicine use has fallen since the end of the COVID pandemic, which may have led the researchers to overestimate the amount of emissions averted due to variations in telemedicine use rates.

Additional authors: Benjo Delarmente, Artem Romanov, Manying Cui, Chi-Hong Tseng, and Catherine Sarkisian of UCLA; Melody Craff, Dale Skinner, and Michael Hadfield of Milliman MedInsight, and Cheryl Damberg of RAND.

Funding: The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging.