The Carbon Footprint and Cost of Virtual Residency Interviews.
Journal
Journal of graduate medical education
ISSN: 1949-8357
Titre abrégé: J Grad Med Educ
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101521733
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Feb 2023
Feb 2023
Historique:
received:
13
03
2022
revised:
21
07
2022
revised:
29
10
2022
accepted:
01
11
2022
entrez:
23
2
2023
pubmed:
24
2
2023
medline:
3
3
2023
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
The shift from in-person to virtual residency interviews may impact greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) and costs but the direction and amount of this change is not yet clear. To estimate GHGE and financial impacts of virtual interviews among applicants and programs. In 2020-2021 we sent a postinterview survey to 1429 applicants from 7 residency programs and 1 clinical psychology program at 1 institution. The survey collected origin of travel and transit type if in-person interviews had been held and excluded responses if the applicant would not have participated in an in-person interview, or if travel type or original city was missing. We used the International Civil Aviation Organization calculator to estimate flight-related GHGE in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) and Google Maps to estimate ground travel, with a standard CO2e per mile. Flight, hotel, and airport taxi costs were estimated using Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Uber, and Lyft. We aggregated these data and calculated median and interquartile ranges (IQRs) for applicant GHGE and cost savings, and assumed no cost or GHGE from virtual interviews. We used Wilcoxon signed rank sum tests to compare in-person 2019-2020 and virtual 2020-2021 GME program interview budgets. The survey response rate was 565, or 40% of applicants; 543 remained after the exclusion criteria were applied. Reduction in applicant travel due to virtual interviews led to median estimated GHGE savings of 0.47 (IQR 0.30-0.61) MTCO2e and $490 (IQR $392-$544) per applicant, per interview. Programs savings ranged from $7,615 to $33,670 for the interview season. Virtual interviews in 8 GME programs were associated with lower estimated GHGE and costs, for applicants and programs, compared with in-person interviews.
Sections du résumé
Background
UNASSIGNED
The shift from in-person to virtual residency interviews may impact greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) and costs but the direction and amount of this change is not yet clear.
Objective
UNASSIGNED
To estimate GHGE and financial impacts of virtual interviews among applicants and programs.
Methods
UNASSIGNED
In 2020-2021 we sent a postinterview survey to 1429 applicants from 7 residency programs and 1 clinical psychology program at 1 institution. The survey collected origin of travel and transit type if in-person interviews had been held and excluded responses if the applicant would not have participated in an in-person interview, or if travel type or original city was missing. We used the International Civil Aviation Organization calculator to estimate flight-related GHGE in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e) and Google Maps to estimate ground travel, with a standard CO2e per mile. Flight, hotel, and airport taxi costs were estimated using Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Uber, and Lyft. We aggregated these data and calculated median and interquartile ranges (IQRs) for applicant GHGE and cost savings, and assumed no cost or GHGE from virtual interviews. We used Wilcoxon signed rank sum tests to compare in-person 2019-2020 and virtual 2020-2021 GME program interview budgets.
Results
UNASSIGNED
The survey response rate was 565, or 40% of applicants; 543 remained after the exclusion criteria were applied. Reduction in applicant travel due to virtual interviews led to median estimated GHGE savings of 0.47 (IQR 0.30-0.61) MTCO2e and $490 (IQR $392-$544) per applicant, per interview. Programs savings ranged from $7,615 to $33,670 for the interview season.
Conclusions
UNASSIGNED
Virtual interviews in 8 GME programs were associated with lower estimated GHGE and costs, for applicants and programs, compared with in-person interviews.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36817522
doi: 10.4300/JGME-D-22-00229.1
pmc: PMC9934836
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
112-116Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Conflict of interest: The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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