The issue of sustainability in healthcare has gained increasing focus over the past several years. During a 2022 plenary session at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Annual Conference and Annual Meeting, Reed A. Omary, MD, MS, Professor of Radiology & Biomedical Engineering Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Founder & CEO, Greenwell Project, drew attention to the importance of understanding the impact of radiology as it relates to sustainability.
Omary, who was featured in Imaging Technology News (ITN) for his work toward sustainable radiology, (“Promoting the Planet's Health: Sustainability in Radiology”), will be presenting three separate sessions during CleanMed 2025. The event, coordinated by the nonprofit organizations Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth, is taking place May 6-8 in Atlanta, Georgia. CleanMed 2025 is the premier national conference for leaders in health care sustainability. It is described by planners as the platform for health care leaders to convene, collaborate, and conduct societal transformation for individual, community, and planetary health, offering actionable strategies and tools.
Since April, 2024, Omary has presented 22 talks, published 9 papers and participated in 9 panel discussions. He has also been interviewed on several podcasts focusing on radiology and environmental sustainability over the past 2 years including: American College of Radiology Bulletin Podcast, along with Benjamin Northrup, MD, is an assistant professor of radiology for Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo.; The Radiology Report Podcast (with Daniel Arnold); American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR) Podcast Series on Sustainability, along with Elizabeth Schumacher, JD; and on The Sustainable Healthcare Podcast.
“In this time of uncertainty, it’s reassuring to see medical societies recognize the important link between human and planetary health,” said Omary. “I’m also honored to be part of the growing movement of healthcare professionals who recognize that sustainability is good for patients, good for our overburdened workforce, and good for our practices’ bottom line,” he added.
CleanMed Places Sustainability in Spotlight
A summary of sessions in which Omary will partake at CleanMed 2025 include: a STAT! talk plenary, a Philips-Vizient panel discussion, and a scientific poster presentation on environmental life cycle analysis. During CleanMed 2024, Omary presented a session, “Powering Change: Driving Toward Reduced Carbon Footprint Through Research & Collaboration.”
During the STAT! talk, Omary and 4 others will focus on how patients are vital to sustainable medicine, but have been largely left out of the conversation. For his part, Omary will draw on insights from more than 1,500 patients to demonstrate how patient voices can improve care for people and the planet. Additional speakers during this session on related topics include: Sarah Wohlford, Carilion Clinic; Dr. Wynne Armand, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mass Gen Brigham; Dr. Julia Schoen, University of Michigan and Healthcare without Harm; and Dr. Lisa Patel, Stanford Medicine and Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.
In a focused panel discussion, Omary and others will address the vital intersection of sustainability, financial stewardship and operational efficiency in diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring. CleanMed 2025 planners further described the value of the session, writing: For the C-suite, it delivers a roadmap to cost-effective procurement strategies that minimize environmental impact while maximizing long-term ROI. The session offers insights on scalable education that empowers clinicians with sustainable practices without complicating their workflow. By standardizing sustainability criteria through initiatives like the Medical Equipment Proactive Alliance (MEPA), healthcare systems can indirectly enhance patient outcomes by investing in more efficient, safer and cleaner technologies to reduce the burden on frontline workers. Ultimately, this strategy enhances healthcare resilience and quality without compromising the clinician experience.
Additional panelists during this session include: Elizabeth Joseph, APRN-BC, MPH, Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, Nurse Educator at Jackson Health System; Dr. Beatrice Murage, Director, Sustainability and Access to Care at Philips; and Vizient Associate Vice President, Core Tenet Programs, Environmental Sustainability, Cristina Indiveri; and Dr. Michael Zalis, director of the MGB Radiology Center for Sustainability.
Omary’s third presentation during CleanMed 2025 will offer an overview of the Environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for diagnostic radiology. The findings are part of a paper: “Beyond the Scan: A Comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment of Radiology’s Environmental Footprint” conducted at Vanderbilt University Hospital, an 800-bed teaching hospital in Nashville, Tenn. In 2022, Vanderbilt Radiology and Philips conducted several co-designed sessions to determine the major unmet need in sustainability for the field of radiology. Collectively, they determined that Environmental LCA would generate the most impact. Among other findings, they identified that partnerships are essential to sustainable healthcare, and found that MRI yields half of all GHGs while CT emits 25%, and that operations are main source of GHGs within a typical mixed grid. Further, they concluded that the single most impactful change for radiology is to convert grid to clean energy and noted the need to reduce unnecessary imaging to reduce GHGs.
Sustainable Healthcare Leaders at ISMRM
Omary will also be involved as a plenary speaker at Annual Meeting and Exhibition of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM 2025) to be held May 13-15 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The 2025 annual meeting spotlights sustainability. In an Ernst plenary session on May 14, “Environmentally Sustainable MRI Equipment,” Omary will present a lecture on “Planetary Health & MRI.”
Several additional presenters during that plenary session will also focus on the meeting’s primary theme. Kate Hanneman, MD, MPH, Cardiac Radiologist at University Medical Imaging Toronto, and Associate Professor and Vice Chair Research at University of Toronto Department of Medical Imaging, who was a co-author of multiple published papers with Omary and others, will present “Sustainable MRI Equipment: Use-Phase.” Michael Markl, Professor & Vice Chair for Research, Department of Radiology at Northwestern University, will present on “Sustainable MRI Equipment: Manufacturing, Production & Imaging Suite Design Phase.”
This plenary session will review the relevance of planetary health and MRI and discuss environmental sustainability of MRI equipment including manufacturing, production and use phases. The goals of this session are to provide participants with a description of planetary health and the impact of the environment on human health and MRI; assist them in evaluating the environmental impact of MRI equipment; and help them to implement actions to improve environmental sustainability of MRI.
ITN Related Content:
https://www.itnonline.com/videos/video-one-one-reed-omary-md-ms-vanderbilt-university-medical-center
https://www.itnonline.com/content/radiologists-propose-actions-combat-climate-change
November 14, 2024 
