World Environment Day 2023
Maverex have responded to the need for incorporating environmental impact in healthcare decision-making and delivered a ground-breaking study estimating the environmental impact of an entire disease pathway, using chronic kidney disease as a case study.
Human impacts on climate and biodiversity are a crisis that affects us all, and we all have a part to play in its mitigation. The UN secretary general, António Guterres recently said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th assessment report ‘is a clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe. Our world needs climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once.’
Here at Maverex, in addition to our extensive expertise in health economics and outcomes research, we also have expertise in assessing the environmental impact of healthcare. Healthcare comes at a high environmental cost, with the NHS reporting that it is responsible for 5% of the UK carbon footprint. This is repeated in healthcare systems, globally, and many healthcare providers have implemented sustainability goals. Environmental impact assessments are now likely to become a key part of healthcare decision-making and in valuing a new technology. HTA agencies have already started developing frameworks or adapting current methodology to include an environmental perspective when assessing new technologies (1). While challenges in its assessment and incorporation in decision-making exist, valuing environmental impact in healthcare can no longer be ignored.
Our extensive expertise has helped our clients to consider the environmental perspective in market access. Most recently, we have used life cycle assessment to estimate the environmental impact of an entire disease pathway, chronic kidney disease, an innovative application of this method, which has never been published before. This data will be presented at the European Renal Association, 2023 in Milan, later in June (2) and manuscripts are pending. This novel framework can be applied to estimate the environmental impact of other chronic disease pathways. Previously, we have worked with pharmaceutical companies to estimate the environmental impact of new and existing products. These include inhaled treatments for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (3) and self-care products for urinary incontinence (4). At the outset, we supported an ISPOR workshop in 2018 on the how to consider green sustainability in value assessments and purchasing decisions.
While valuing technologies from an environmental perspective is an emerging area in healthcare, Maverex are proud to continue to support and advise our clients in this new and essential topic.
Hubbert et al, Value in Health 2022;25(12):S307. https://www.valueinhealthjournal.com/article/S1098-3015(22)03721-4/fulltext
Janson et al, ERJ Open Res. 2023 May 2;9(3):00543-2022. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10152248/
The abstract is not published yet, expected June 2023.