ArticleThe American journal of managed care2025
Impact of telemedicine use on outpatient-related CO2 emissions: estimate from a national cohort.
Article in The American journal of managed care, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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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
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Telemedicine Adoption, US Ambulatory Visits, and Total Medical Spending, 2019-2023.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Theoretically redesigning peritoneal dialysis products for sustainability: A life cycle inventory approach.The International journal of artificial organs · 2026Article
- A decade of greener care: Environmental, economic, and operational impact of the virtual stone clinic in the United Kingdom.Central European journal of urology · 2026Article
- Environmental impact of colorectal cancer screening with colonoscopy and multi-target stool DNA (mt-sDNA) testing.Health affairs scholar · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe US health care system contributes to approximately 9% of domestic US greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating climate change and threatening human health. By substituting for in-person visits, telemedicine may represent a means of emission avoidance. STUDY
designLeveraging multipayer claims data, we developed models based on various assumptions to estimate ranges of emissions from travel averted by telemedicine utilization between April 1, 2023, and June 30, 2023.
methodsWe estimated the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions averted from the avoidance of travel by patients using telemedicine as a substitute for their usual source of in-person care at post-public health emergency rates through a modeling analysis of nationwide multipayer claims data representing 19% of US insured adults; findings were extrapolated to the entire US insured adult population.
resultsWe quantified a monthly average of 1,481,530 US telemedicine visits (65,733 rural) during the study period. Between 740,765 and 1,348,192 of these were estimated to have substituted for in-person visits. Using inputs of 2021 electric vehicle (EV) production share and emissions per mile, we estimated that between 4,075,065 and 7,489,486 kg of CO2 are averted due to telemedicine use each month. Estimates accounting for different assumptions including EV and public transportation use produce a range of 4 million (most conservative) to 8.9 million (least conservative) kg of CO2 averted per month. Extrapolating to the entire US adult population, we estimate that monthly emissions averted range from 21.4 to 47.6 million kg of CO2-roughly equivalent to the monthly emissions of 61,255 to 130,076 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles.
conclusionOur results suggest that telemedicine use at 2023 rates modestly decreases the carbon footprint of US health care delivery.
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Registered trials
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