Next time you need a virtual colonoscopy or a root canal — You will be saving the Planet!
Virtual Doctor Visits Save Time & the Planet:
“When you click ‘join appointment’ for a virtual doctor visit…you’re helping cut greenhouse gas emissions.” https://t.co/E5q5ttQwqy pic.twitter.com/LKIvIChxRT— Marc Morano (@ClimateDepot) April 22, 2025
https://studyfinds.org/virtual-doctor-visits-cut-carbon-emissions/
Carbon Emissions Saved Akin to Output of 130,000 Cars Every Month
In a nutshell
- Telemedicine saved millions of pounds of CO₂ each month in 2023—enough to match the emissions of up to 130,000 gas-powered cars, according to a UCLA-led study.
- The biggest environmental impact came from avoided travel, especially for rural patients who typically drive farther for care.
- While modest on a national scale, these emissions savings offer a new reason for policymakers to support expanded access to virtual healthcare.
LOS ANGELES — When you click “join appointment” for a virtual doctor visit, you’re not just saving yourself a drive to the clinic, you’re helping cut greenhouse gas emissions. According to new research from UCLA and other universities, telemedicine appointments prevented the release of up to 47.6 million kilograms of carbon dioxide monthly in 2023. That’s roughly equivalent to the emissions from 130,000 gas-powered vehicles.
The COVID-19 pandemic normalized virtual healthcare practically overnight, but researchers hadn’t quantified the environmental impact of this massive shift until now. The healthcare sector contributes a whopping 9% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire aviation industry, making it a significant but often overlooked contributor to climate change.
The study, published in The American Journal of Managed Care, found that 2023 telemedicine usage levels modestly decreased the carbon footprint of American healthcare delivery. Researchers examined data from 44.7 million American adults with various insurance types—Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial plans—representing about 19% of all insured U.S. adults. Researchers counted a monthly average of nearly 1.5 million telemedicine visits between April and June 2023, with about 66,000 of those occurring in rural areas.
Not every virtual visit truly replaces an in-person appointment. Some might represent additional care that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Accounting for this, researchers calculated two scenarios: one where 91% of telemedicine visits substituted for in-person care (their base estimate) and a more conservative scenario where only half of virtual visits truly replaced physical appointments.
Carbon Savings from Skipped Commutes
Even using the most conservative assumptions, telemedicine prevented the emission of at least 4 million kilograms of CO₂ monthly within the study population. When extrapolated to the entire U.S. adult population and factoring in variables like electric vehicle usage and public transportation, the monthly emissions savings ranged from 21.4 to 47.6 million kilograms.
Transportation sits at the heart of these savings. With rural patients driving an average of 17.8 miles to their usual care provider and urban patients averaging 8.1 miles per trip, those avoided car journeys add up quickly. Researchers factored in regional differences and various types of vehicles on the road to calculate the emissions impact.
The researchers pointed out that reducing healthcare’s carbon footprint produces positive downstream effects on human health. A separate modeling study cited in the paper suggests that adding 4.4 million kilograms of CO₂ annually causes one temperature-related excess death globally, not including deaths from other climate impacts like increased pollution or infectious disease spread.
