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Environmental and Patient Impact of Applying a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Model in Primary Care: Rural vs. Urban Centres

Motor vehicles are a major contributor to air pollution, and the exposure to this human-caused air pollution can lead to harmful health effects. This study evaluates the impact of the provision of point-of-care ultrasounds (POCUS) by primary care (PC) to avoid the patient’s need to travel to a speci...

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Autores principales: Marín-Gomez, Francesc X, Mendioroz Peña, Jacobo, Canal Casals, Vicenç, Romero Mendez, Marcos, Darnés Surroca, Ana, Nieto Maclino, Antoni, Vidal-Alaball, Josep
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32403439
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093333
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author Marín-Gomez, Francesc X
Mendioroz Peña, Jacobo
Canal Casals, Vicenç
Romero Mendez, Marcos
Darnés Surroca, Ana
Nieto Maclino, Antoni
Vidal-Alaball, Josep
author_facet Marín-Gomez, Francesc X
Mendioroz Peña, Jacobo
Canal Casals, Vicenç
Romero Mendez, Marcos
Darnés Surroca, Ana
Nieto Maclino, Antoni
Vidal-Alaball, Josep
author_sort Marín-Gomez, Francesc X
collection PubMed
description Motor vehicles are a major contributor to air pollution, and the exposure to this human-caused air pollution can lead to harmful health effects. This study evaluates the impact of the provision of point-of-care ultrasounds (POCUS) by primary care (PC) to avoid the patient’s need to travel to a specialized service. The study estimates the costs and air pollution avoided during 2019. The results confirm that performing this ultrasound at the point of care reduces the emission of 61.4 gr of carbon monoxide, 14.8 gr of nitric oxide and 2.7 gr of sulfur dioxide on each trip. During the study, an average of 17.8 km, 21.4 min per trip and almost 2000 L of fuel consumed in a year were avoided. Performing POCUS from PC reduces fuel consumption and the emission of air pollutants and also saves time and money. Furthermore, only 0.3% of the scans had to be repeated by radiologists. However, more studies with more participants need to be done to calculate the exact impact that these pollution reductions will have on human health.
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spelling pubmed-72464342020-06-11 Environmental and Patient Impact of Applying a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Model in Primary Care: Rural vs. Urban Centres Marín-Gomez, Francesc X Mendioroz Peña, Jacobo Canal Casals, Vicenç Romero Mendez, Marcos Darnés Surroca, Ana Nieto Maclino, Antoni Vidal-Alaball, Josep Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Motor vehicles are a major contributor to air pollution, and the exposure to this human-caused air pollution can lead to harmful health effects. This study evaluates the impact of the provision of point-of-care ultrasounds (POCUS) by primary care (PC) to avoid the patient’s need to travel to a specialized service. The study estimates the costs and air pollution avoided during 2019. The results confirm that performing this ultrasound at the point of care reduces the emission of 61.4 gr of carbon monoxide, 14.8 gr of nitric oxide and 2.7 gr of sulfur dioxide on each trip. During the study, an average of 17.8 km, 21.4 min per trip and almost 2000 L of fuel consumed in a year were avoided. Performing POCUS from PC reduces fuel consumption and the emission of air pollutants and also saves time and money. Furthermore, only 0.3% of the scans had to be repeated by radiologists. However, more studies with more participants need to be done to calculate the exact impact that these pollution reductions will have on human health. MDPI 2020-05-11 2020-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7246434/ /pubmed/32403439 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093333 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Marín-Gomez, Francesc X
Mendioroz Peña, Jacobo
Canal Casals, Vicenç
Romero Mendez, Marcos
Darnés Surroca, Ana
Nieto Maclino, Antoni
Vidal-Alaball, Josep
Environmental and Patient Impact of Applying a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Model in Primary Care: Rural vs. Urban Centres
title Environmental and Patient Impact of Applying a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Model in Primary Care: Rural vs. Urban Centres
title_full Environmental and Patient Impact of Applying a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Model in Primary Care: Rural vs. Urban Centres
title_fullStr Environmental and Patient Impact of Applying a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Model in Primary Care: Rural vs. Urban Centres
title_full_unstemmed Environmental and Patient Impact of Applying a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Model in Primary Care: Rural vs. Urban Centres
title_short Environmental and Patient Impact of Applying a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Model in Primary Care: Rural vs. Urban Centres
title_sort environmental and patient impact of applying a point-of-care ultrasound model in primary care: rural vs. urban centres
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7246434/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32403439
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17093333
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