A new study shows telehealth decreased the number of cars on the road in the U.S. in 2023, helping cut carbon emissions.
Many have grown to embrace the convenience of telehealth brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. But now researchers have found that taking your doctor's appointments from the couch could have another upside: it's good for the environment. A new study, published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Managed Care on April 22, has found the use of telemedicine could have an impact in reducing carbon emissions. The findings showed that telehealth decreased the number of cars on the road in the U.S., reducing monthly carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of up to 130,000 gas-powered cars. Advertisement Advertisement Researchers quantified nearly 1.5 million telemedicine visits in urban and rural areas between April 1 and June 30, 2023 and estimated that anywhere between 741,000 to 1.35 million of those visits were substitutes for in-person visits. Using those calculations, they…