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Peer-reviewedCC BYNpj health systems

Health systems and climate change mitigation through an applied health informatics and sustainability perspective.

  • Mostafa Balboul1,2
  • Manijeh Berenji3,4,5
  • Asma Jahan Pathan6
  • Muhammad Muinul Islam7,8
  • Arriel Benis9,10
  • Beenish Chaudry11
  • Zerina Lokmic-Tomkins12
  • Chethan Sarabu13,14
  • Prerna Dua15
  • Md Shafiur Raihan Shafi11
  • Sarah Balboul16
  • Titus Schleyer17,18
18 affiliations
  1. 1Hunterdon Medical Center, Flemington, NJ, USA. [email protected].
  2. 2Rochester Regional Health, Rochester, NY, USA. [email protected].
  3. 3Department of Medicine, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, UC Irvine School of Medicine, Irvine, CA, USA.
  4. 4Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Joe C. Wen School of Population and Public Health, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA.
  5. 5University of California Center for Climate, Health and Equity, Oakland, CA, USA.
  6. 6Health Informatics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA.
  7. 7Department of Biomedical Informatics, Biostatistics, and Medical Epidemiology, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, MI, USA.
  8. 8Truman School of Government and Public Affairs, University of Missouri, Columbia, MI, USA.
  9. 9Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
  10. 10Department of Biomedical Informatics, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA.
  11. 11School of Computing and Informatics, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA.
  12. 12School of Nursing and Midwifery and Health and Climate Initiative, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia.
  13. 13Health Tech Hub, Cornell Tech, Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.
  14. 14Department of Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, New York, NY, USA.
  15. 15Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MI, USA.
  16. 16Department of Internal Medicine, St. Luke's University Health Network, Easton, PA, USA.
  17. 17Center for Biomedical Informatics, Regenstrief Institute, Inc., Indianapolis, IN, USA.
  18. 18Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
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Abstract

Climate change poses a growing threat to U.S. healthcare systems, which are uniquely positioned to mitigate its impacts while addressing their own greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, supply chains, clinical operations, and waste. Clinical informaticists can advance mitigation by integrating environmental data into health system operations and decision-making. Tracking emissions across scopes enables data-informed strategies, while frameworks such as I-CLIMATE and One Digital Health can help coordinate disparate data streams and reduce healthcare's environmental impact. Integrated dashboards can support renewable energy adoption, energy efficiency, and operational decision-making, while telehealth can reduce transportation-related emissions. Artificial intelligence may also reduce resource use when applied judiciously through narrowly scoped, task-specific models, with frameworks such as SAHAI guiding sustainable implementation. Financial approaches such as New York University's Return on Sustainability Investment framework can quantify the financial value of decarbonization initiatives. Effective governance, including vertical alignment and horizontal integration, is essential to operationalizing these strategies. Emerging opportunities include climate-conscious hardware design and carbon accounting applications. Ultimately, informatics can provide the data, tools, and governance infrastructure needed to translate climate mitigation goals into measurable health system action and establish carbon neutrality as an organizational performance priority.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{balboul2026health,
  title = {{Health systems and climate change mitigation through an applied health informatics and sustainability perspective.}},
  author = {Mostafa Balboul and Manijeh Berenji and Asma Jahan Pathan and Muhammad Muinul Islam and Arriel Benis and Beenish Chaudry and Zerina Lokmic-Tomkins and Chethan Sarabu and Prerna Dua and Md Shafiur Raihan Shafi and Sarah Balboul and Titus Schleyer},
  journal = {Npj health systems},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1038/s44401-026-00157-1},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42907483},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Health systems and climate change mitigation through an applied health informatics and sustainability perspective.
AU  - Mostafa Balboul
AU  - Manijeh Berenji
AU  - Asma Jahan Pathan
AU  - Muhammad Muinul Islam
AU  - Arriel Benis
AU  - Beenish Chaudry
AU  - Zerina Lokmic-Tomkins
AU  - Chethan Sarabu
AU  - Prerna Dua
AU  - Md Shafiur Raihan Shafi
AU  - Sarah Balboul
AU  - Titus Schleyer
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/21
JO  - Npj health systems
DO  - 10.1038/s44401-026-00157-1
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42907483
AB  - Climate change poses a growing threat to U.S. healthcare systems, which are uniquely positioned to mitigate its impacts while addressing their own greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, supply chains, clinical operations, and waste. Clinical informaticists can advance mitigation by integrating environmental data into health system operations and decision-making. Tracking emissions across scopes enables data-informed strategies, while frameworks such as I-CLIMATE and One Digital Health can help coordinate disparate data streams and reduce healthcare's environmental impact. Integrated dashboards can support renewable energy adoption, energy efficiency, and operational decision-making, while telehealth can reduce transportation-related emissions. Artificial intelligence may also reduce resource use when applied judiciously through narrowly scoped, task-specific models, with frameworks such as SAHAI guiding sustainable implementation. Financial approaches such as New York University's Return on Sustainability Investment framework can quantify the financial value of decarbonization initiatives. Effective governance, including vertical alignment and horizontal integration, is essential to operationalizing these strategies. Emerging opportunities include climate-conscious hardware design and carbon accounting applications. Ultimately, informatics can provide the data, tools, and governance infrastructure needed to translate climate mitigation goals into measurable health system action and establish carbon neutrality as an organizational performance priority.
SN  - 3005-1959
ER  -