Carbon-free healthcare: Are you ready for the journey?
Daniele Fazio, vice president of business development, Flex Health Solutions, EMEA, reflects on the recent MedTech Forum in Dublin.
The healthcare sector faces a looming challenge: driving innovation to deliver better patient care while minimising environmental impact. According to the World Economic Forum, the sector accounts for over 4% of all global carbon emissions.
Recently, we hosted a panel of industry experts moderated by MedTech Europe at The MedTech Forum 2023 conference in Dublin to discuss the trends driving sustainability and to provide a focus for discussion on the future of sustainable innovation in the sector.
Under the banner: Advancing Towards Carbon-Free Healthcare with Circular Economy: Ready for the Journey? experts explored specific issues around sustainability and the practical steps companies can take to reduce their carbon footprint and improve the sustainability of their medical devices.
Some common areas of focus emerged including a clear increase in demand for sustainable solutions from customers, an evolving demand from patients, anticipated growth in regulation, and new developments in design and manufacturing that can support sustainable goals.
Growing expectations
In Europe, healthcare providers are raising their expectations of suppliers when it comes to supporting net-zero carbon emission objectives.
One notable market trend is the transition of therapies and diagnostics from hospitals to point-of-care settings and patients' homes. This shift sees a major disruption of the product-as-a-service model, where medical devices are managed by hospitals and sometimes owned by healthcare solutions companies responsible for maintenance. It will enable patients to take a more active role in managing their health and blur the line between medical and consumer devices.
Establishing the necessary infrastructure to extend the lifespan of these products, including their retrieval from the field to facilitate repair, refurbishment, and recycling of the plastics, batteries, and electronics, will depend on the adoption of intelligent usage models, and effective strategies for engaging patients in the circular economy.
Anticipating regulation
More specific sustainability regulation is inevitable. The European Green Deal for example, will bring about radical changes and place new demands on the industry to align with the legislation.
With a common set of challenges, the need for intense industry collaboration on sustainability standards is obvious.
Healthcare solutions companies can collaborate to inspire industry-wide change in several ways: establishing sectorial key performance indicators (KPIs), environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) reporting standards, and sharing industry best practices and lessons learned.
Two sustainable approaches
Many forward-looking companies have already taken steps to improve their sustainable manufacturing practices by setting clear science-based environmental targets for reducing emissions, water usage and achieving zero waste. This can be achieved through generating and purchasing renewable energy, optimising site infrastructure, and partnering with customers and suppliers on energy and emissions reduction strategies.
Partnering can accelerate sustainability across the value chain in design, manufacture, and product distribution. By incorporating environmental requirements from the early stages of product design, customers can reduce their environmental impact. In fact, it is possible to support the entire product lifecycle, encompassing logistics, order fulfilment, reverse logistics, refurbishment, repair, and recycling through a specialist provider. This approach not only benefits the planet, but also aligns with the core mission of the healthcare industry, which is to improve people's lives.
Better by design
We work closely with customers to address the challenges and opportunities associated with medical device sustainability and the practicality of delivering circular economy solutions around the world.
One of the key pillars of sustainable transformation for medical devices is the integration of sustainability principles into product design and development. This involves using sustainable materials, optimising energy efficiency, improving product durability to extend lifespan and designing for easier disassembly and reassembly to allow for maintenance and repair.
Additionally, opting for platforms that work to environmental design guidelines to reduce environmental impact and address areas of improvement for product sustainability is of huge benefit.
Product architecture is key
However, given the long product life cycle of some medical devices, it is not uncommon for companies to focus on redesigning existing products. This can be a more difficult path to follow.
An assessment to redesign a product begins with an analysis carried out against a set of best practice guidelines to identify where improvements can be made. Each product characteristic is evaluated for potential redesign based on the impact and likely environmental benefits it can deliver, as well as the time, complexity, and scope of effort required.
The ideal scenario is to set the environmental requirements at the early stages of product development, in the ‘User Requirements Specification’ document. The specifications will guide your engineer’s work on system requirements, architecture, and sub-system requirements including hardware, firmware, and mechanical design. You must also consider:
- Material Selection - Material selection can be challenging as biocompatibility requirements set a high bar. Sourcing components need investigation, planning and testing to ensure materials meet certain requirements e.g., that products are robust and capable of being dropped from a reasonable height without breaking.
- Power - Lower power consumption is an important factor, particularly for portable and battery-operateddevices.
- Repair - If you want the option to repair a product, you need to be able to open it using screws or snaps. Gluing and welding, commonly used as the most cost-effective solutions, are more suited to disposable products.
- Reliability - Extending a product’s life can have obvious sustainable benefits. Designing for reliability can help avoid the need to repair and refurbish the product altogether, thus avoiding that cost.
The healthcare industry has a unique opportunity to drive sustainable innovation and become a catalyst for positive change.
This will require innovation and working closely with others throughout the value chain. Beyond designing for sustainability, the healthcare industry will have to look at other ways to partner to make meaningful strides. For example, one focus area may be the collection of used products through take-back programs and collaborating with stakeholders including hospitals and pharmacies across the value chain.
Through a collaborative approach and a shared vision of improving lives, our industry can continue to improve patient care while safeguarding the planet.