The journey to create a multidisciplinary green radiology leadership team was the topic of a Monday morning session.
Hayley Panet, MHSc, senior manager for medical imaging at Toronto Western Hospital in Ontario, shared her health network’s approach to form a multidisciplinary leadership committee that was focused on sustainability.
Panet
“Health care contributes over five percent of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—and medical imaging departments are one of the largest contributors,” said Panet. “I hope to provide a roadmap for forming a green radiology program at any institution, the hospital department roles and committee participants to include, and an example of strategic goals and activities.”
Seeking Input From All Levels Of Care
With approval from department executives, the hospital established a co-chair model with a radiologist and hospital administrator to lead the green radiology initiative.
The committee includes members of the medical imaging team and hospital leadership, as well as other key players across the organization, including members of medical imaging, business intelligence, biomedical engineering, environmental and building services.
“We identified experts from across hospital roles and departments to form our multidisciplinary leadership team,” she said.
As a guide, the committee utilized the special report on climate change and radiology published in Radiology by co-author Kate Hanneman, MD, MPH, a cardiac radiologist and deputy lead for sustainability at University Medical Imaging Toronto.
Part of the committee’s strategy involves partnering with front-line teams who must execute on and support initiatives on a day-to-day basis. Panet said she hopes this shared accountability model will inspire team members to think about changes that can be made in their own niche areas.
“We really want to engage staff to be green radiology champions, advocates, and ambassadors to help lead and sustain the changes we make,” she said.
Addressing Sustainability With No Compromise to Care
To begin assessing the hospital’s impact on GHG emissions and waste, the committee established and prioritized goals and activities, beginning with data collection and annual goals to capture, track and quantify the impact of changes.
“We needed to determine what and how to measure across our fleet of scanners to determine a baseline measurement,” Panet said. “This requires a financial investment as well as careful planning to ensure there are no interruptions to patient care.”
The committee’s second goal involved identifying activities and opportunities to reduce waste, especially single-use consumables.
Panet acknowledged that maintaining the momentum of green radiology initiatives can be challenging.
“I really hope that the work we’re doing implementing changes within our healthcare system will provide a blueprint for other green radiology groups,” she said. “We plan to continue sharing our learnings to inspire others.”
Access the presentation, “Creation and Impact of a Multidisciplinary Green Radiology Leadership Team,” (M3-STCE1-3) on demand at Meeting.RSNA.org.
