Greening Operating Rooms One Product at a Time

Founder and CEO of NewGen Surgical, Rob Chase, gives insight to MD+DI on how the medical device industry can be part of the solution for sustainable healthcare as a speaker at the MD&M West 2020 Conference.

“”Healthcare organizations are responding regarding their contribution on climate change, said Rob Chase in an interview with MD+DI. Chase, who is the founder and president of NewGen Surgical, explained that plastic production and disposal from single-use disposables for the hospital supply chain generates a large portion of “Scope 3 CO₂ emissions.”

Chase will be speaking in the upcoming MD&M West 2020 panel discussion, “Sustainability, Environmental Responsibility, and the Medical Device Community,” on February 11, 2020.

“Why is it important that the medical device industry start to pay attention to sustainability and environmental responsibility?” asked Chase. The answer, he said, is that hospitals understand the disproportionate amount of CO₂ emissions they are producing and need help from their supply chain. Recently the largest healthcare sustainability advocacy group, Health Care Without Harm, cited some sobering numbers—4.4% of all global CO₂ emissions are contributed by healthcare organizations. Of that percentage, 71% of these CO₂ emissions are Scope 3 related to the production, transport, and disposal of goods and services. Hospitals are in the business of delivering patient care, not manufacturing, and so they seek solutions from the greater industry.””

To read the full article click here