Electronic medical record, telemedicine, virtual reality, data in the cloud. Digital technology – especially after the restrictions on mobility in the period of the pandemic – has entered even more significantly in all sectors of daily and working life, including healthcare, accelerating a process that has already been underway for decades. And the digitalization of healthcare has had significant repercussions not only in terms of efficiency of care, synergy between operators, doctor-patient relationship, but also with respect to environmental sustainability, according to a report recently published by Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI). A result that is far from obvious, since, if on the one hand the transition to digital ensures the reduction of movements and occupancy of physical spaces, on the other it also entails an increase in energy needs: the study shows, however, numbers in hand, that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, that is, that the transition to digitization – if carried out wisely – is overall environmentally friendly.
The digital that unites
There are 3 and a half billion people, just under the entire world population, who currently have no access to basic health services. In this context, digitalisation constitutes a unique opportunity for change and for the improvement of global well-being, since it can lead – albeit virtually – healthcare professionals to places where they would have difficulty getting there. In this sense, the CoViD-19 pandemic has given a further turn: a study recently published by McKinsey Digital predicted that “the recovery from the pandemic will be digital”, both by companies, which are already now shifting to digital channels an increasingly consistent part of their operations (for example by encouraging smart working and moving their data to the cloud), both by users, who prefer to take advantage of digital services. Philips is one of the companies that has best anticipated and intercepted the phenomenon: one in two employees, among those employed in research and development, works on software development and data science, the sectors most closely connected to the digitalization of healthcare, and the company has already developed decision algorithms and predictive analysis tools that, for example, alert doctors in advance of potential adverse events for their patients or guide them remotely via digital coaching solutions.
The environment thanks
As we said, the transition to digital, if conducted wisely, can ensure more efficient environmental sustainability. And also on this front Philips has moved well in advance: following the famous Sustainable Development Goals (part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda), the company has long drawn up a very precise roadmap to ensure that the transition to digital is completely green. Among the key points are, for example, the use of renewable energy for at least 75% of the needs by 2025, the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions along the entire production chain, the commitment to generate 25% of its own earnings from products, services and circular solutions, offering, again by 2025, the exchange of all professional medical equipment and managing its recycling. Only if done with these goals in mind “can digitalisation of healthcare really improve global access to care and enable more efficient use of natural resources”, explained Robert Metzke, Philips’ Global Head of Sustainability.
Breaking down distances, reducing waste
In practice, therefore, what are the aspects of digital – and in particular digital in the health sector – that can have the most impact in environmental terms? The first, and most immediate, is that which concerns the movements of doctors and patients and hospitalizations. In this context, telemedicine solutions allow doctors to remotely monitor the health status of their patients, without both having to move from the hospital and from their own home, with obvious benefits on the environmental front. At the same time, as demonstrated by the “Vicini di Salute” project carried out by Philips and Pfizer with the support of the Politecnico di Milano, a more targeted patient monitoring through digital platforms allows greater adherence to care, thus reducing the recourse to hospitalizations and with significant impacts on the economic sustainability of the health system as a whole. The aforementioned GeSi report estimates that by 2030 four out of ten visits will be carried out remotely. Then there is the question linked to the so-called “dematerialization”: the transition to digital reduces, on the whole, the need for physical supports and, with adequate software development, even the quantity of hardware and the energy requirements of the entire infrastructure. Moving their data to the cloud, for example, means for a company to use an infrastructure optimized for large-scale use, rather than using its own means, and therefore, overall, to consume less. To be clear, it is the same difference that exists between the use of one’s car and the use of public transport: a report has shown, in this regard, that the transition to the cloud involves the use of 77% fewer servers. and 84% less energy (compared to the use of personal resources) and translates, overall, into an 88% reduction in carbon emissions. In fact, another study, conducted by Precedence Research, predicted a 17.8% growth in the use of cloud computing in healthcare by 2027. In terms of optimizing resources and reducing waste, Philips has developed software that enables more efficient use of hardware and maximizes the quality of health care with respect to available resources. It is a web platform that, in real time, aggregates data from different sources and integrates them with those already available to hospitals, so that healthcare personnel can view, in real time, all the information they need; the software also allows the staff to promptly identify the possibilities for improvement also in terms of the use of materials and energy.
Everyone’s effort is needed
The transition will have even more effect, of course, if virtuous behavior is encouraged on the part of everyone: simply remember to turn off the computer in the evening or when you are not using it (it seems obvious, but it is not: half of the computers in the offices stay on at night and on weekends) could help significantly reduce – by up to 50 percent, a 2006 report says – a company’s energy consumption. And the same goes for lighting, heating systems, air conditioning. Small tricks that, put together, can really make a difference.