[Make medical research more sustainable]

Abstract

Healthcare is responsible for a significant part of the global CO2 footprint. Awareness of this contribution is now growing, and various actions are being taken to reduce the climate and environmental impact of the healthcare sector. However, little attention is paid to the impact of scientific medical research as part of healthcare.In this article, we advocate to include climate impact in all aspects of prioritizing, developing and conducting research. To address this the following questions are important: 1. Can the research be justified based on the usefulness for clinical practice and the use of climate impact-related resources? 2. Is the research carried out as sustainable as possible? 3. Is climate impact an outcome measure of the research? We discuss what is already known and can be used today. Furthermore, we provide suggestions on what is needed for further developments on this topic.