Frontiers in digital health最新文献

{"title":"Emerging technologies transforming the future of global biosecurity.","authors":"Renan Chaves de Lima, Juarez Antonio Simões Quaresma","doi":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1622123","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1622123","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The convergence of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology offers transformative opportunities to enhance global biosecurity. Emerging technologies promise rapid detection, containment, and mitigation of global biological threats, while simultaneously raising complex ethical and security challenges. This research aims to critically examine advances in AI applications for biosecurity, innovations in vaccine development enabled by synthetic biology, and the risks associated with the democratization of powerful biotechnological tools. We highlight both the potential and the dangers of integrating these technologies into public health preparedness systems and advocate for the establishment of robust governance frameworks to ensure their ethical and equitable implementation.</p>","PeriodicalId":73078,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in digital health","volume":"7 ","pages":"1622123"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12174072/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144327980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Assessing usability and satisfaction of telephone-based psychiatry consultations in Oman: a cross-sectional study.","authors":"Tamadhir Al-Mahrouqi, Fatema Al-Sabahi, Mohammed Al-Alawi, Munira Al Rubkhi, Marwa Al Abdali, Muna Al Salmi, Tharaya Al-Hashemi, Rahma Al Nuumani, Fatma Al Balushi, Rashid Al Zaidi, Samir Al-Adawi, Sachin Jose, Hassan Mirza","doi":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1563180","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1563180","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Telehealth has become a valuable tool for providing health services remotely through digital communication technologies. Therefore, assessing patients' satisfaction and the utility of this tool is crucial for future implementation and development.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A cross-sectional survey study was conducted at Al Masarra Hospital between January 1st, 2023, and June 30th, 2023, with adults recruited from the general adult psychiatry clinic and received at least 3 previous telephone-based psychiatry consultations. Data were then analyzed using the Chi-square test and a multivariate binary logistic regression.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Among 222 patients (a mean age = 37.72 years), the majority (77.5%) were found to have an overall satisfaction with the service. Most participants agreed that telehealth improves access to healthcare services (65.2%), saves time traveling (78.4%), and meets their healthcare needs (75.7%). A total of 22.5% of participants reported dissatisfaction with the service. Significant predictors of satisfaction included sex, employment status, and monthly income. Females were more likely to be satisfied with telephone-based psychiatric consultations (Adjusted OR = 2.525, <i>p</i> = 0.030). Homemakers or unemployed participants were more likely to report satisfaction (Adjusted OR = 7.838, <i>p</i> = 0.009), as were those earning between 150 and 499 OMR (Adjusted OR = 10.967, <i>p</i> = 0.001) and ≥500 OMR (Adjusted OR = 46.312, <i>p</i> < 0.001).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Telephone-based psychiatry consultations demonstrated high usability, satisfaction, and accessibility among study participants. Sex, employment status, and monthly income significantly influenced satisfaction levels. These findings highlight the potential of telehealth to bridge gaps in mental healthcare delivery, particularly for underserved populations in Oman. It is important to consider, however, the issues that might arise during these consultations that lead to dissatisfaction in some patients, and find suitable solutions for both the patients and the healthcare providers.</p>","PeriodicalId":73078,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in digital health","volume":"7 ","pages":"1563180"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12174093/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144327978","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Development, implementation and evaluation of a digital treatment for adolescents with chronic pain: a protocol for a multi-phase study.","authors":"Jordi Miró, Ariadna Sampietro, Sonia Monterde, Pablo Ingelmo, Rikard K Wicksell, Carme Nolla, Mercedes Alonso, Juan José Lázaro, Ernesto Martínez, Paloma Rubio, Armando Sánchez, Vanessa Sánchez, Alvaro Vázquez, Rocío de la Vega, Francisco Reinoso-Barbero","doi":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1555733","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1555733","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Chronic pain in adolescents is an increasing public health concern with a significant physical, psychological, and social impact. This study aims to develop, implement, and evaluate DigiDOL-Ad, a digital psychosocial treatment for adolescents with chronic pain, supplemented by dedicated websites for their parents and teachers. This multicenter study will be conducted in four phases: (1) Development of the intervention framework and foundational planning; (2) Focus groups with adolescents with chronic pain, their parents, teachers, healthcare professionals and health authorities to identify specific needs and tailor the psychosocial treatment and related components; (3) Iterative usability testing of the digital treatment, using an a hermeneutical circle methodology to refine the design based on participant feedback; and (4) Evaluation of DigiDOL-Ad through a pre-treatment, post-treatment, and 3-month follow-up assessment. DigiDOL-Ad has the potential to improve the quality of life for adolescents with chronic pain. By leveraging digital health technologies, this innovative approach could establish a new benchmark for treating adolescents with chronic pain, emphasizing interdisciplinary and stakeholder-driven care.</p><p><strong>Clinical trial registration: </strong>clinicaltrials.gov, identifier NCT06765200.</p>","PeriodicalId":73078,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in digital health","volume":"7 ","pages":"1555733"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12174134/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144327979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Participatory design and evaluation of digital coaching for improving health-the star multicomponent lifestyle intervention.","authors":"Helena Lindgren, Kaan Kilic","doi":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1600535","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1600535","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>There are particular challenges when designing and developing a digital coaching application aimed at providing person-tailored support for lifestyle changes in multiple domains to promote health. This study explored how a participatory design process addresses challenges that materialised in a multicomponent lifestyle intervention, providing an understanding of the onboarding experience and early user engagement.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A participatory design methodology was applied involving a multidisciplinary team of 12 domain experts and different groups of end users in design cycles, model construction, prototyping, and evaluation. The process followed a design methodology for argument-based health information systems and a framework for layered interactive adaptive systems to engage domain experts in the development of aspects relating to the interactivity of the system. A qualitative user study was conducted with eight participants, five regular users and three nurses, focussing on the onboarding phase.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Contributions of this article are (i) the StarCoach, the person-tailored health-promotion intervention for multiple health behaviours supporting short and long-term goals; (ii) a framework for studying multicomponent lifestyle interventions with multiple behaviour change techniques (BCTs); and (iii) qualitative results regarding usage, adherence to, and perceived effects of the intervention with a focus on the initial phase of using the application. The five regular participants reported increased health-promoting activities during the onboarding phase and were using already habituated activities to establish a routine to use the intervention.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The participatory design led to StarCoach embedding clusters of BCTs, which build a framework for research on multicomponent lifestyle interventions. Whether using already habituated activities to establish a routine to use the intervention could be a strategy to increase adherence and engagement in the onboarding phase and beyond will be a focus in future studies. The participants also showed increased engagement in their chosen lifestyle-change activities during the study period. The findings will be followed up in future studies to evaluate the effects on behaviour over a longer period of time.</p>","PeriodicalId":73078,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in digital health","volume":"7 ","pages":"1600535"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12172075/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144318810","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A pragmatic double blind remote pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial of a self-management app for people with Sjögren disease.","authors":"Katie L Hackett, Miglena Campbell, Eduwin Pakpahan, John Vines, Dennis Lendrem, Jemma McCready, Tim Rapley, Jason Ellis, Vincent Deary, Elaine McColl, Claire McCallum","doi":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1549093","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1549093","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Objectives: </strong>To pilot and assess the feasibility of a fully remote effectiveness evaluation of a novel smartphone self-management app for people living with Sjögren disease (SjD), including evaluating trial procedures and app engagement.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We conducted a double-blind, randomised, fully-remote pilot feasibility of a self-management smartphone app (Sjogo) containing interactive components with an information-only control app. After completing onboarding procedures, participants were allocated to a trial arm following download from Apple App and Google Play stores. Participants completed symptoms and quality of life measures at baseline and (at two further timepoints (5-7 and 10-13 weeks) after download. Engagement with the app was measured with number and duration of logins.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>996 participants downloaded Sjogo to their smartphone. 871 (87.45%) consented to take part in the study and 617 (61.95%) completed the onboarding procedures and baseline measures and were randomised to the full-version of the app (<i>n</i> = 318) or control-version (<i>n</i> = 299). In-app randomisation produced balanced groups. In week 1 engagement was higher in the intervention group <i>m</i> = 4.76 logins (S.D. 8.06) than the control group <i>m</i> = 3.47 (S.D. 2.75). At week 2 engagement dropped in both groups (intervention group <i>m</i> = 1.17, SD 4.56, control <i>m</i> = 0.40, SD 0.93). Outcome completion rates at subsequent timepoints were 36.63% (weeks 5-7) and 27.39% (weeks 10-13).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>It is feasible to collect data fully remotely, automate trial procedures, and recruit participants to a randomised controlled trial of a self-management smartphone app for people with SjD through app stores. However, app engagement and outcome completion rates could be improved.</p>","PeriodicalId":73078,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in digital health","volume":"7 ","pages":"1549093"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12170581/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144318809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A modified UTAUT model for acceptance to use telemedicine services and its predictors among healthcare professionals at public hospitals in North Shewa Zone of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia.","authors":"Debela Tsegaye Hailu, Mequannint Sharew Melaku, Solomon Abuhay Abebe, Agmasie Damtew Walle, Kefyalew Naniye Tilahun, Kassahun Dessie Gashu","doi":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1469365","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1469365","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The shortage of healthcare professionals, long waiting time for treatment, inadequate transportation, and hard-to-reach geographical locations remained challenging in the healthcare service delivery in resource-limited settings. To overcome these challenges, healthcare providers are looking to use telemedicine technologies as an alternative solution. However, user resistance has consistently been identified as a major obstacle to the successful implementation of telemedicine. Thus, this study aimed to assess acceptance to use telemedicine services and its predictors among healthcare professionals at public hospitals in the North Shewa Zone of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A cross-sectional study design was employed among a total of 627 healthcare professionals working at public hospitals in the North Shewa Zone from 3 April to 1 May 2023. The study participants were selected using simple random sampling techniques. A questionnaire, which is adapted from the original instrument developed by Venkatesh et al.'s study and several studies regarding the UTAUT model was used. Data were collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire in English version. The descriptive statistics were estimated using the SPSS version 25, and structural equation modeling analysis was employed using AMOS V.21 software.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In this study, 601 (95.85% response rate) study subjects participated. The study has shown that 315 (52.4%) (95% CI: 48.3-56.5) of the participants accepted to use telemedicine in their routine healthcare services. Performance expectancy (<i>β</i> = 0.184, <i>p</i> = 0.001), effort expectancy (<i>β</i> = 0.183, <i>p</i> < 0.001), facilitating conditions (<i>β</i> = 0.249, <i>p</i> < 0.001), and digital literacy (<i>β</i> = 0.403, <i>p</i> < 0.001) had a significant positive effect on the acceptance to use telemedicine services. Age was used to moderate facilitating conditions (<i>β</i> = 0.400, <i>p</i> < 0.001) and digital literacy (<i>β</i> = 0.598, <i>p</i> < 0.001) in relation to acceptance to use telemedicine services.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The healthcare professionals' acceptance to use the offered telemedicine services was promising for the future. Additionally, our research found significant effects between healthcare professionals' acceptance to use telemedicine services with the predictors except social influence. Facilitating conditions and digital literacy with acceptance to use were moderated by age. Thus, the health facility should strengthen its telemedicine technology by raising awareness of its usefulness and ease of use.</p>","PeriodicalId":73078,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in digital health","volume":"7 ","pages":"1469365"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12171827/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144318808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Continuous monitoring of critically ill patients using photoplethysmography-the road to a less invasive ICU monitoring.","authors":"João Rosinhas, Rui Malheiro, João Tiago Pimenta, Ricardo Sá, Francisco Serdoura, José-Artur Paiva","doi":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1605020","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1605020","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Intensive Care Medicine is based on continuous timely monitoring of physiological variables to guide modulation of therapy. This monitoring is often invasive, but there is a trend for the adoption of non-invasive devices, already largely used in wards and homecare, to reduce risk of device-associated side effects. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of a non-invasive equipment (Corsano Cardiowatch 287-2B) in the assessment of blood pressure, heart rate, temperature and oxygen saturation in critically ill patients admitted to the ICU.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>This prospective cohort study developed in an adult ICU admitting patients for level 3 and 2 of care compared the Corsano Cardiowatch 287-2B with the ICU standard monitoring, namely continuous electrocardiogram, invasive arterial blood pressure through arterial catheter, pulse oximeter and central thermometer. Concordance was assessed using the Bland-Altman test.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Nineteen patients were included in the study. The number of time-points included for comparison between the two monitoring strategies were more than 50,000 in pulse and heart rate, around 40,000 in oxygen saturation and body temperature and 1,200 in systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Bias for heart rate and pulse were -1.73 and -0.77, respectively. The limits of agreement were between -14.90 and 11.33, for heart rate, and -14.25 and 12.71, for pulse. Small biases were also estimated for oxygen saturation (0.21), with limits of agreement between -6.97 and 7.39, and body temperature (0.58), with limits between -1.12 and 2.47. Concordance was low for diastolic and systolic blood pressure, with bias of 5.18 and -11.27, respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Corsano Cardiowatch 287-2B reaches good levels of concordance compared to traditional ICU monitoring for heart and pulse rates and may be a valuable solution for their less invasive monitoring, with promising results for future operationalization for oxygen saturation and body temperature. Concordance is low for blood pressure, meaning the device is currently unsuitable for use with that purpose.</p>","PeriodicalId":73078,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in digital health","volume":"7 ","pages":"1605020"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12162652/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144303806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Detecting benzodiazepine use through induced eye convergence inability with a smartphone app: a proof-of-concept study.","authors":"Kiki W K Kuijpers, Markku D Hämäläinen, Andreas Zetterström, Maria Winkvist, Marieke Niesters, Monique van Velzen, Fred Nyberg, Albert Dahan, Karl Andersson","doi":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1584716","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1584716","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Benzodiazepines (BZDs) are readily available potent drugs that act as central depressants. These drugs are widely used, misused, and abused. For patients with BZD use disorder, the traditional sobriety monitoring method is periodic urine tests.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>The utility of eye-scanning data related to non-convergence (the ability to cross eyes) collected using smartphones with the Previct Drugs app before and after ingestion of the BZD lorazepam for detecting BZD-driven effects was evaluated using data from 12 individuals from a historic clinical study (NCT05731999). Using a novel metric that represents the change in distance between irises when converging eyes, either in absolute terms (NCdiff) or individualized (NCdiffInd), classifiers were built using logistic regression.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The ability to converge eyes is a strongly individual and acquired skill that is impaired after ingesting lorazepam. The maximum NCdiff for a BZD-sober individual may be smaller than the impaired NCdiff for another individual. Using the NCdiff measured in a sober condition after approximately 1 week of regular eye-scanning as the individual baseline to form NCdiffInd produced a highly functional classifier with an area under the curve (AUC) = 0.88, which was superior to a classifier based on NCdiff with an AUC = 0.79.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The loss of eye convergence induced by lorazepam is continuous, individual, and can be partial. Smartphone-based eye-scanning technology combined with a classifier adapted to the ability of eye convergence of individuals shows promising performance in detecting ingestion of lorazepam.</p>","PeriodicalId":73078,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in digital health","volume":"7 ","pages":"1584716"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12162636/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144303828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The evolution of digital health: a global, Latin American, and Brazilian bibliometric analysis.","authors":"Maria Eulália Vinadé Chagas, Gabriela de Oliveira Laguna Silva, Gabriel Ricardo Fernandes, Gabriela Tizianel Aguilar, Mariana Motta Dias da Silva, Evandro Luis Moraes, Isadora D Avila Lottici, Jerusa da Rosa de Amorim, Tiago de Abreu, Taís de Campos Moreira, Felipe Cezar Cabral","doi":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1582719","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1582719","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Digital health provides remote healthcare assistance, contributing to reducing inequalities in access to services. For its widespread adoption, it is essential to disseminate successful models implemented in countries with developed digital health networks, so that they can be adapted and replicated in developing regions. The dissemination of scientific studies on the topic, combining digital health activities within various contexts with scientific research, is crucial for promoting significant advancements in the understanding and application of these technologies. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of global scientific production in digital health from 2019 to 2024, with special attention to Latin America and Brazil.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A bibliometric analysis was conducted with searches in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. The analysis used the Bibliometrix package in RStudio, and the data were filtered for the global dimension, Latin American countries, and Brazil. The authorship analysis was restricted to publications with at least one Brazilian author and was carried out through a manual check of each record. The protocol was registered on the Open Science Framework platform under the number 10.17605/OSF.IO/43WQ5.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A total of 51,723 publications were included in the global dimension, 2,410 in Latin America, and 1,317 in the Brazilian analysis. The number of publications increased from 2019 to 2021. In the global scenario, the United States led scientific production in digital health, whereas Brazil led in Latin America.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Digital health has expanded exponentially, consolidating itself as a strategic pillar in healthcare systems. Investments in international collaborations that encourage knowledge exchange, strengthen research networks, and drive scientific publications are essential. These partnerships are crucial for adapting digital tools to different socioeconomic contexts and ensuring equitable care for the population.</p>","PeriodicalId":73078,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in digital health","volume":"7 ","pages":"1582719"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12162614/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144303832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Greening healthcare and slashing carbon emissions through telemedicine: a cross-sectional study from over 50 thousand remote consults at a leading tertiary hospital.","authors":"Roberto Nunes Umpierre, Rita Mattiello, Carlos André Aita Schmitz, Enrique Falceto de Barros, Rodolfo Souza da Silva, Marcelo Rodrigues Gonçalves, José Roberto Goldim","doi":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1497770","DOIUrl":"10.3389/fdgth.2025.1497770","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Minimizing healthcare systems' resource footprints is crucial. To expand this focus, our objective was to assess the carbon emission reductions achievable through the introduction of telemedicine services at a prominent Brazilian tertiary hospital.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This cross-section study included all patients who had remotely held appointments in a Brazilian tertiary hospital. The primary outcome was carbon emissions. The estimated carbon emissions were first calculated based on the distance between the hospital and the patient's home address. After, the calculated distance was multiplied by the amount of carbon estimated according to the type of transport used.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The study included 28,244 patients undergoing 52,878 remote appointments between March and December 2020, residing in 417 municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul and 80 towns in other Brazilian states. The total sum of distances and carbon gas reduction saved with the implementation of remote consultations amounted to 805,252.00 km and 939,641.94 kg of CO₂ emissions, respectively.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>Telemedicine initiatives implemented in tertiary hospitals for less than a year result in a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions saved. Telemedicine emerges as a promising strategy with significant potential to mitigate the impact on planetary health.</p>","PeriodicalId":73078,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in digital health","volume":"7 ","pages":"1497770"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12162610/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144303829","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}