--- title: How Telehealth Can Reduce Carbon Emissions description: A new study shows telehealth decreased the number of cars on the road in the U.S. in 2023, helping cut carbon emissions. canonical: https://time.com/7279222/how-telehealth-could-reduce-carbon-emissions/ author: Simmone Shah article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-04-22T13:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-11T00:18:21.534Z article:section: Health og:title: How Telehealth Can Reduce Carbon Emissions og:description: A new study shows telehealth decreased the number of cars on the road in the U.S. in 2023, helping cut carbon emissions. og:url: https://time.com/7279222/how-telehealth-could-reduce-carbon-emissions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd57cfedc12a45ee/6998c5f07323af9c982bc712/telehealth-emissions.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Telehealth Cart og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Telehealth Can Reduce Carbon Emissions twitter:description: A new study shows telehealth decreased the number of cars on the road in the U.S. in 2023, helping cut carbon emissions. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd57cfedc12a45ee/6998c5f07323af9c982bc712/telehealth-emissions.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Telehealth Can Reduce Carbon Emissions > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Simmone Shah](https://time.com/author/simmone-shah/)  ## Simmone Shah Reporter Apr 22, 2025 1:00 PM UTC  Teladoc, a rolling telehealth cart that allows physicians to meet with their patients remotely, is shown at Stony Brook University Hospital on Oct. 9, 2021. Teladoc, a rolling telehealth cart that allows physicians to meet with their patients remotely, is shown at Stony Brook University Hospital on Oct. 9, 2021. Photo by John Paraskevas—Getty Images  by [Simmone Shah](https://time.com/author/simmone-shah/)  ## Simmone Shah Reporter Apr 22, 2025 1:00 PM UTC Many have grown to embrace the convenience of telehealth brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. But now researchers have found that taking your doctor’s appointments from the couch could have another upside: it’s good for the environment. A new study, published in the peer-reviewed _American Journal of Managed Care_ on April 22, has found the use of telemedicine could have an impact in reducing carbon emissions. The findings showed that telehealth decreased the number of cars on the road in the U.S., reducing monthly carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of up to 130,000 gas-powered cars. Researchers quantified nearly 1.5 million telemedicine visits in urban and rural areas between April 1 and June 30, 2023 and estimated that anywhere between 741,000 to 1.35 million of those visits were substitutes for in-person visits. Using those calculations, they determined that telemedicine use cut CO2 emissions by a range of roughly 23,500 and 52,500 tons each month during the time studied—equivalent to the emissions produced by 61,000 to 130,000 gas powered vehicles. “The health care sector contributes significantly to the global carbon footprint,” Dr. A. Mark Fendrick, the study’s co-senior author and professor of medicine and director of Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan, said in a press release. The U.S. health system currently contributes almost 9% of the country’s emissions, while transportation accounts for about 29%. “Our findings suggest that the environmental impact of medical care delivery can be reduced when lower-carbon options, such as telemedicine, are substituted for other services that produce more emissions.” The health care system has not shied away from the need to lower its carbon footprint. Around the world, some clinics are reconsidering what items can be [reused or recycled](https://time.com/6289409/hospitals-money-climate-impact/), as well as [beginning to phase out ](https://time.com/6341073/hospitals-tackling-anesthesia-climate-impact/)an anesthetic known as desflurane, one bottle of which is equivalent to driving a gas car 2,200 miles.. Some limitations remain, however. The researchers of the new study say that, though the participants had sociodemographic characteristics that were similar to those of U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the findings may not represent the broader population or account for regional variations, such as seasonal trends or internet access. Telemedicine use has also fallen since the end of the COVID pandemic, which could have led them to overestimate the true amount of averted emissions in the future. All the same, the findings could help sway policies, researchers say, as Congress [continues to debate](https://www.americantelemed.org/press-releases/no-shutdown-for-telehealth-as-congress-passes-spending-bill-to-keep-the-government-open-including-critical-telehealth-extensions-ata-action-celebrates-vote/) the extension of pandemic-era flexibilities and Medicare waivers for the use of telehealth. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7279222/how-telehealth-could-reduce-carbon-emissions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7279222/how-telehealth-could-reduce-carbon-emissions/"},"headline":"How Telehealth Can Reduce Carbon Emissions","datePublished":"2025-04-22T13:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T00:18:21.534Z","description":"A new study shows telehealth decreased the number of cars on the road in the U.S. in 2023, helping cut carbon emissions.","url":"https://time.com/7279222/how-telehealth-could-reduce-carbon-emissions/","keywords":["climate change"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd57cfedc12a45ee/6998c5f07323af9c982bc712/telehealth-emissions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Simmone Shah","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/simmone-shah/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd57cfedc12a45ee/6998c5f07323af9c982bc712/telehealth-emissions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Telehealth Cart","caption":"Telehealth Cart","creditText":"Photo by John Paraskevas—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7279222/how-telehealth-could-reduce-carbon-emissions/","name":"How Telehealth Can Reduce Carbon Emissions"}}]}] ```