Abstract
The sustainability is an important issue for the human activities and the healthcare system cannot escape this rule. The extensive use of medical devices has an impact in worsening the issue (e.g. due to the large number of disposable items), but also helps to solve the problem if the overall picture is kept in mind.
When discussing about healthcare sustainability, the decision-makers should consider, besides the environmental impact, the social and financial consequences. All those aspects are strongly influenced by the aging of the population and the need to extend the adequate treatment to the whole world community.
After a first definition of what is intended as sustainability in healthcare and an analysis of the main relevant issues, this chapter considers the contribution of medical devices and related technologies to this important topic.
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Notes
- 1.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book of 2007 [8], introduced the concept of black swan referring to the extreme impact of rare and unpredictable events and the human tendency to find a retrospective simplistic explanation for these events.
- 2.
Disability Adjusted Life Years—This parameter synthesizes the disease burden on a population due to the years lost for premature mortality and the lower quality of life due to illness or disability (see e.g. [10]). It is computed as: DALY = YLL + YLD. (YLL= years of life lost, YLD = years with disability).
- 3.
Medical electrical equipment—Part 1–9: General requirements for basic safety and essential performance—Collateral Standard: Requirements for environmentally conscious design.
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Boccato, C., Cerutti, S., Vienken, J. (2022). The Role of Medical Devices in Healthcare Sustainability. In: Boccato, C., Cerutti, S., Vienken, J. (eds) Medical Devices. Research for Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85653-3_11
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