Stephanie Garland and Gillian Parker
The environmental co-benefits of reducing low-value care: focus on prescribing practices and pharmaceuticals
Date and time
Tuesday April 9, 2024 (12-1 p.m. ET)
Session Description:
Healthcare practices that have been deemed low or no value, in effect, generate carbon emissions, waste and pollution without improving patient or population health. In collaboration with the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health and Sustainable Care, this seminar will present a synthesis of emerging, international research reporting on the environmental co-benefits of reducing low-value care. Specifically this session will focus on pharmaceuticals in the environment and how prescribing practices can significantly reduce environmental impacts such as water pollution and carbon emissions along the pharmaceutical lifecycle. Dr. Stephanie Garland will present the Providence Health Care Anticoagulation Stewardship Program’s pilot project to reduce unnecessary use of heparin.
Speaker biography:
Stephanie Garland is the Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Hematology and Thrombosis at St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver BC. Dr. Garland’s work involves a combination of direct patient care activities in ambulatory hematology clinics and quality improvement initiatives focusing on anticoagulation. In collaboration with local Thrombosis experts, she has piloted a novel Anticoagulation Stewardship Program which focuses on promoting a risk-stratified approach to venous thromboembolism prophylaxis in order to reduce the unnecessary use of heparin medications.
Gillian Parker is a Researcher at the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care (CCCHSC) and Assistant Professor in Health Systems Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME),Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Dr. Parker’s work focuses on improving the sustainability of health systems, with particular interest in realizing the environmental co-benefits of reducing low-value care. Her current research program examines pharmaceuticals and the environment, including a systems approach to understanding and mitigating risks and harms to human and environmental health from pharmaceutical carbon emissions and release into ecosystems.
Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care
Launched in November 2023, the Collaborative Centre is an initiative of four faculties: the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, and the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy.
This unit will catalyze research, education, and practice change in clinical care, health system management, health policy, and public health to meet the transformative challenges posed by climate change and the demands of sustainability.
We are currently undergoing strategic planning, and all interested are welcome to engage in the strategic planning process and events. For updates and notice of upcoming events, including more seminars, sign up to our mailing list. Feel free to contact us with any inquiries: climate.health@utoronto.ca
