Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jul 5:8:20552076221111297.
doi: 10.1177/20552076221111297. eCollection 2022 Jan-Dec.

The environmental sustainability of data-driven health research: A scoping review

Gabrielle Samuel  1   2 , A M Lucassen  2   3
Affiliations

The environmental sustainability of data-driven health research: A scoping review

Gabrielle Samuel et al. Digit Health. .

Abstract

Data-Driven and Artificial Intelligence technologies are rapidly changing the way that health research is conducted, including offering new opportunities. This will inevitably have adverse environmental impacts. These include carbon dioxide emissions linked to the energy required to generate and process large amounts of data; the impact on the material environment (in the form of data centres); the unsustainable extraction of minerals for technological components; and e-waste (discarded electronic appliances) disposal. The growth of Data-Driven and Artificial Intelligence technologies means there is now a compelling need to consider these environmental impacts and develop means to mitigate them. Here, we offer a scoping review of how the environmental impacts of data storage and processing during Data-Driven and Artificial Intelligence health-related research are being discussed in the academic literature. Using the UK as a case study, we also offer a review of policies and initiatives that consider the environmental impacts of data storage and processing during Data-Driven and Artificial Intelligence health-related research in the UK. Our findings suggest little engagement with these issues to date. We discuss the implications of this and suggest ways that the Data-Driven and Artificial Intelligence health research sector needs to move to become more environmentally sustainable.

Keywords: Environmental sustainability; digital technologies; environmental impacts; sustainability.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

    1. Subrahmanya SVG, Shetty DK, Patil V, et al. The role of data science in healthcare advancements: applications, benefits, and future prospects. Irish Journal of Medical Science (1971) 2021. DOI: 10.1007/s11845-021-02730-z - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vayena E, Dzenowagis J, Brownstein JS, et al. Policy implications of big data in the health sector. Bull World Health Organ 2018; 96: 66–68. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Birk R, Samuel GN. Can digital data diagnose mental health problems? A sociological exploration of ‘digital phenotyping’. Sociology of Health and Illness 2020; 42: 1873–1887. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.13175 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lupton D. Quantifying the body: monitoring and measuring health in the age of mHealth technologies. Crit Public Health 2013; 23: 393–403.
    1. Sharpe JD, Hopkins RS, Cook RL, et al. Evaluating Google, Twitter, and Wikipedia as tools for influenza surveillance using Bayesian change point analysis: a comparative analysis. JMIR Public Health Surveill 2016; 2: e161–e161. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources