Background

Health care associated activities account for 10% of United States’ greenhouse gas emissions. Using telemedicine for bariatric surgery evaluations decreases emissions and reduces patient travel burden during the multiple required interdisciplinary visits. After adopting telemedicine during COVID, our clinic continues to utilize telemedicine for preoperative bariatric evaluations. We evaluated the reduced environmental impact associated with this practice.

Methods

A single institution retrospective review of patient evaluations from January-June 2021 was conducted. Patients undergoing workup for sleeve gastrectomy (SG) and roux-y-gastric bypass (RYGB) were included. Preoperative visits were classified as in-person or telemedicine. Carbon emissions were calculated using the EPA’s validated formula of 404g CO2 per car-mile.

Results

55 patients underwent SG (42%) or RYGB (58%) in this time period. The median number of total provider, dietician, and social worker telemedicine visits per patient was 7 (5-16), while the median number of in-person visits was 1 (1-4). Telemedicine saved 433 in-person visits and the associated travel in this brief evaluation period. This reduced emissions by 10,517kg CO2 which represents an 84% reduction in carbon emissions.

Conclusions

Implementation of telemedicine for bariatric preoperative evaluations reduced patient travel and carbon emissions. Other benefits such as reduced time from initial evaluation to surgery and cost savings warrant future evaluation. We encourage bariatric providers to use telemedicine as we believe this eases patient burden and, with wider adoption, could significantly reduce our carbon footprint.