Topic

Paper highlighting environmental footprint of efficient cataract surgical model

Cassandra Thiel
Cassandra Thiel • 7 December 2017

Hello everyone,

I'm very excited to share my new publication- "Cataract surgery and environmental sustainability: Waste and lifecycle assessment of phacoemulsification at a private healthcare facility."

We analyzed the waste and environmental footprint of cataract surgery at Aravind Eye Care System in southern India. Through careful process design, standardized training and tasks, and material reuse, Aravind performs their phacoemusification (cataract surgery) with 5% of the carbon emissions for the same procedure done in the United Kingdom.  This link should get you a full copy of the article for the next month: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1WAbu39Xtpsylf (This link for after the month is over: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0886335017307113)

Aravind has designed a surgical process that increases throughput, thus decreasing overhead costs and resource-use. With multi-use pharmaceuticals and reusable supplies (and a carefully designed system for sterilization), Aravind has achieved a very efficient and effective surgery to restore sight to hundreds of people a day.

Hope it gives you some ideas!

-Cassie

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Comments (1)

Harriet  Dean-Orange
Harriet Dean-Orange

Hi Cassie,

Thank you for posting this article! I will most certainly be taking a look. 5% is a stagering number and certainly shows we could improve here.

Harriet Dean-Orange


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