Supporting sustainable development goals and the challenge of reusing of the single use instruments in interventional radiology

Abstract

Interventional radiology has traditionally been at the forefront of the modern medicine, offering minimally invasive alternatives to surgical treatment with reducing of the length of hospital stay. The problem of medical waste and the recycling of medical supplies to support sustainable development goals in the health sector has entred a “green revolution” that aims to overcome global warming and fight with environmental pollution. Operating waste accounts for 20 to 70 % of all hospital waste, and many of them require special disposal. On the other hand, revenues for health care companies continue to rise, as do patient care costs, which are a huge burden for families and health systems, especially in low-income countries during COVID-19 pandemic. The issue of disposal and reuse of unique, expensive disposable radiological profile instruments is not widely reported in the scientific literature, but surveys among interventionists indicate that reuse exists even in countries where it is officially prohibited. Despite the emergence of regulations on the reuse of disposable instruments, it is largely carried out outside the quality standards. Also, manufacturers are not interested in reusing disposable instruments and often refuse to provide information on how they can be properly recycled and sterilized. Although well-remanufactured tools have significant promise, both for reducing healthcare costs and environmental pollution, and for spreading modern interventional technologies to the critical places where resources are limited and they can save lives.

Implementation of lasting changes to sustainability in Interventional Radiology is a top-down governance challenge

“…The cliché of “reduce, reuse, recycle” is as important now as it has always been. We should reduce our usage of waste products by only opening items we are using and/or trying to avoid excessive use of disposable equipment (Vyval et al 2021 ). We should reduce our power consumption and turn off unused electrical items (Shum et al 2022 ).…”

“…Ultimately, change in healthcare comes from a well-trodden process such as the Kotter model, and changes must be based on healthcare science and underpinned by data (Steele et al 2012 ). While IRs are now beginning the process of generating some data on the topic of waste and sustainability (Chua et al 2021 ; Clements et al 2020 ; Reeder et al 2023 ; Vyval et al 2021 ), it is still dwarfed by existing and ongoing research on clinical practice, and there simply aren’t enough clinicians focussing their research attention on this important topic.…”