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Sustainable imaging at the University Hospital Basel
Advances in medical technology are delivering groundbreaking capabilities in diagnosis and treatment – but no matter how essential these technologies are, healthcare has the same duty as any sector to scrutinize the environmental footprint of such systems.
There is a particularly close link between the fields of sustainability and health, and it is therefore vital to identify solutions that can optimize energy consumption while maintaining consistent quality. This is the subject of research at the University Hospital Basel, which has identified numerous ways of making imaging more sustainable in radiology.
Meet Prof. Elmar Merkle
Taking responsibility
One simple measure: switching off overnight
Energy prices now carry a lot more weight, and politicians are talking about the possibility of an energy shortage.
Professor Elmar Merkle, Head the Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Department at University Hospital Basel, Switzerland
Sustainability is about finding the sweet spot
Sustainability at the University Hospital Basel
- Since 2021, the University Hospital Basel (USB) has had an office that is tasked with improving sustainability at the hospital across the board. As well as compiling a regular sustainability report containing key information and objectives relating to sustainability, the office also organizes information events on the topic and plans corresponding measures. For example, USB was the first hospital in Switzerland to switch its patient catering over to the MicroPast® method, whereby dishes are cooked in a large kitchen, pasteurized, and packed in airtight containers. This system improves not only the efficiency of production and serving processes, but also the environmental footprint. Indeed, CO2 emissions, water consumption, and food waste have all gone down since the system was introduced. In the future, USB also wants to offer two additional vegetarian or vegan menus per week at the staff restaurant. One key step in 2023 was the establishment of an ecofund, and the hospital is currently working to replace a greater number of disposable medical items with reusable equipment, e.g., scissors or tweezers.