ArticleCureus2024
Lowering the Carbon Footprint Through Telehealth Vasectomy Consults: A Retrospective Observational Study.
Article in Cureus, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThis study aimed to quantify the impact of shifting in-person pre-vasectomy consultations to telehealth visits on travel time and carbon footprint reduction. MATERIALS AND
methodsUtilizing retrospective chart analysis, we examined men who underwent vasectomy at our institution from November 15, 2020, to November 15, 2021. Using their home address, we estimated the distance and travel time with Google Maps direction services to our institution's outpatient urology clinic. We then quantified the number of miles of gas used by dividing that distance by 25 miles per gallon, based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency market average in 2020. We then estimated the pounds of carbon dioxide produced per gallon of gasoline using the United Energy Information Administration's estimate that each gallon of gasoline produces 18.74 pounds of carbon dioxide.
resultsAfter including 126 cases, the average patient saved 26 miles round trip between their home address and our institution's outpatient clinic. This averaged 43 minutes per round trip. Using our reference values, each trip saved an estimated 1.04 gallons of gasoline and 19.48 pounds of carbon being produced.
conclusionsBy transitioning pre-vasectomy consults from an in-person to a telehealth format, patients have added convenience in reduced travel in addition to a lower individual carbon footprint. Impact statement: With an average of 500,000 vasectomies performed per year, transitioning from in-person to telehealth vasectomy pre-consults has the potential to save patients' travel time while reducing their carbon footprint.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.