Medical Delta's research on making healthcare more sustainable

Healthcare accounts for 7% of total Dutch greenhouse gas emissions. The causes are complex and diverse, while the initiatives to reduce these emissions are often local and not always coherent. Medical Delta is committed to using interdisciplinary research and innovation to make healthcare more sustainable and to share knowledge about making healthcare more sustainable.

One of the initiatives to accelerate innovation and research towards greener healthcare is the Interdisciplinary Thesis Lab 'Sustainable Hospitals' that Medical Delta has set up in collaboration with LDE Centre for Sustainability. Master students from various disciplines and different academic institutions devote their master thesis to researching actual sustainability issues of hospitals and industry.

In addition, Medical Delta organizes interdisciplinary meetings between scientists working on sustainable care. An example of this is the brainstorm session 'sustainable care' that brought together researchers between universities, colleges and RIVM researchers on this topic in 2022. Medical Delta is also contributing to discussions on how to make hospitals more sustainable faster by supporting and facilitating existing movements. In its communications, Medical Delta contributes to awareness and makes an active contribution to the debate.

Thesis Lab Sustainable Hospitals: removing barriers

In the Interdisciplinary Thesis Lab 'Sustainable Hospitals', master's students search for answers to research questions submitted by hospitals and medical technology companies. From February to July, students conduct research, where they are supervised by various practitioner experts such as healthcare professionals and technology innovators. The master theses that are produced provide new leads and sometimes concrete solutions to make healthcare more sustainable. These are presented to the principals and made publicly available during a roundtable meeting, thus making a concrete contribution to making healthcare more sustainable.

Click here for a detailed description of the Interdisciplinary Thesis Lab 'Sustainable Hospitals' and the current research questions being investigated.

Research results Thesis Lab Sustainable Hospitals 2022 and 2023

Click here for the results, an extensive report of the round table discussion and video registration of the Medical Delta Café about the research results of 2023.

Click here for the results, an extensive report of the round table discussion and video registration of the Medical Delta Café about the research results of 2022.