I-Climate: A “Clinical Climate Informatics” Action Framework to Reduce Environmental Pollution From Healthcare

Authors

Dean F Sittig
Jodi D Sherman
Matthew J Eckelman
Andrew Draper
Hardeep Singh

Publication Date

11-14-2022

Journal

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

Abstract

Addressing environmental pollution and climate change is one of the biggest sociotechnical challenges of our time. While information technology has led to improvements in healthcare, it has also contributed to increased energy usage, destructive natural resource extraction, piles of e-waste, and increased greenhouse gases. We introduce a framework "Information technology-enabled Clinical cLimate InforMAtics acTions for the Environment" (i-CLIMATE) to illustrate how clinical informatics can help reduce healthcare's environmental pollution and climate-related impacts using 5 actionable components: (1) create a circular economy for health IT, (2) reduce energy consumption through smarter use of health IT, (3) support more environmentally friendly decision-making by clinicians and health administrators, (4) mobilize healthcare workforce environmental stewardship through informatics, and (5) Inform policies and regulations for change. We define Clinical Climate Informatics as a field that applies data, information, and knowledge management principles to operationalize components of the i-CLIMATE Framework.

Keywords

climate change, electronic health records, clinical climate informatics, medical informatics, i-CLIMATE

Comments

PMID: 35997550