Caring for our environment should be everyone’s responsibility. My Grandfather was what he called a ‘Forestry Consultant” and focused on reforestation in the 1970s and the 1980s. He founded a
National Park in the southern Indian city of Bangalore my family’s home town where he was very interested in the cultivation and use of bamboo for use in everyday life. The ability for us to think of ways use less plastic and have more biodegradable products will give future generations an opportunity to live a better life.
When I first heard about Earth Day (and bought a T-Shirt with that on it back in the 90s), it didn’t have as much meaning to me as it does now. As the world’s population grows and we need to think about how we can better utilize our limited resources to nourish and clothe the people of the world, we need to think about better conservation methods. Healthcare is also not immune to this, though going green in Healthcare IT is not a straight forward process. One way that healthcare has been better at conservation is the implementation and use of electronic health records, the biggest Go Green initiative ever by healthcare provider organizations. Tele-Health initiatives means that now, people in rural populations or anywhere for that matter, do not have to drive to a specific location for things such as specialist referrals and can cut gas emissions and improve population health. Data centers have leveraged the concept of server virtualization and reducing the carbon footprint of those data centers and also reducing hardware costs and power consumption. (Don’t forget to join us at our CSO HIMSS Spring Conference focused on mHealth and Tele-Health. Click here to see the agenda and register for the event – Not to be missed)
I’ll take this opportunity again to wish everyone a very Happy Earth Day!
Healthcare Interoperability 