The carbon footprint of overdiagnosis

Abstract

Overdiagnosis is the process of making people into patients unnecessarily. Besides undermining the quality of care and patient outcomes, overdiagnosis (and overuse) prompts the urge to look at how to reduce low-value care to face the climate crisis. It is estimated that 80% of the total CO2 emission from the healthcare sector stems from clinical activity and that 40% of this is low-value care. This review finds that we need research on the benefits and harms of clinical activity in Denmark to provide evidence-based reforms minimizing low-value care, thus cutting the CO2 emissions substantively in healthcare.