Implications of Incorporating Environmental Sustainability Into Health Technology Assessment for Digital Health...

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Health Informatics
• Health Technology Assessment

Background:

• Current health technology assessment (HTA) frameworks fail to adequately address the environmental implications of digital health technologies (DHTs).
• Critical factors like energy consumption, data storage, water usage, and electronic waste are often overlooked in traditional HTA.
• This oversight risks underestimating DHTs' environmental impact and jeopardizing health systems' net-zero targets.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the necessity of incorporating environmental sustainability (ES) into HTA for DHTs.
• To identify gaps and challenges in current HTA frameworks regarding ES integration.
• To propose strategies for embedding ES into the value assessment of DHTs.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing HTA frameworks and current initiatives related to ES.
• Analysis of examples including telehealth, electronic health records, and AI-driven diagnostics to illustrate environmental impacts and benefits.
• Identification of challenges and gaps in integrating ES into value assessment.

Main Results:

• Digital health technologies can reduce carbon emissions and pollutants through reduced patient travel and optimized resource use.
• Traditional HTA models offer limited guidance for incorporating broad environmental factors.
• There is a significant gap in assessing the full environmental lifecycle of DHTs.

Conclusions:

• Integrating ES into HTA is crucial for ensuring DHTs provide genuine value for population and planetary health.
• Targeted investment in HTA frameworks, streamlined environmental data collection, and cross-sector collaboration are proposed.
• Systemic inclusion of ES in HTA can drive sustainable digital health innovation and support health systems' environmental goals.