Masterclass: Life Cycle Analysis

Using the framework of ISO 14040 (Life cycle assessment – Principles and framework), we will be critiquing four published Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) papers from medical journals to determine what makes a high-quality paper.

Participants can expect to gain knowledge of:

• The importance of goal and scope, system boundary, and functional unit selection
• Data quality for life cycle inventories
• Integration of economic input-output data with process LCA data
• Sensitivity analysis
• Uncertainty analysis

When: 12:45am to 15:45am

Where: The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC (exact details tbc)

Cost: $200 ($100 student, trainee and allied health rate) afternoon tea included

Prerequisite: Participants are required to attend the Healthcare Carbon Literacy Workshop in the morning 

Who you will learn from:

Dr Scott McAlister is a Research Fellow at the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne. Since 2005 he has worked as a consultant, undertaking environmental life cycle assessments for a wide variety of industries. Starting in 2009 he became involved in performing assessments in healthcare, and subsequently authored and co-authored papers on the environmental impacts of a range of medical devices and interventions.

Leading on from this, Scott has recently completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne on decarbonising healthcare. His research focused on how to incorporate carbon impacts into health technology assessments, calculating the carbon footprint of pathology testing and diagnostic imaging, the environmental and economic benefits of reducing pathology testing in a hospital department, and the incidence of unnecessary preoperative pathology testing. His work is currently focused on the carbon impacts of low-value care.

Associate Professor Forbes McGain is the inaugural Associate Dean, Healthcare Sustainability, in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He is an anaesthetist and intensive care physician at Western Health, Melbourne, Australia, and an Associate Professor (Medicine) at the University of Sydney. He enjoys being involved in research, teaching and education at the hospital, university and beyond. Forbes remains passionate about making seemingly small environmental sustainability changes to how we practice medicine that become magnified through every nations’ hospitals. His love of nature affects everything he does at work, home, and well, anywhere…

Professor Eugenie Kayak (FANZCA, MBBS, MSc, MPH) is the Enterprise Professor in Sustainable Healthcare in the Department of Critical Care, Melbourne Medical School. Professor Kayak is a consultant anaesthetist at Austin and Alfred Health and in private practice. She is a member of the Chief Medical Officer Advisory Group for development of the National Health and Climate Strategy and Convenor of National Sustainable Health Care for Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA).

Professor Kayak has worked with DEA, her own specialty, the AMA and wider medical profession for over a decade, to raise awareness of, and address, the health impacts of climate change and environmental degradation - including health care’s own impact. Work with the AMA has resulted in a collaboration calling for the Australian healthcare sector to be net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and engagement of Australia’s specialist medical colleges to advocate for action from government and the health sector.

Who is this course for?

Both the workshop and masterclass are designed for all healthcare professionals, academics, researchers, managers and policy makers seeking a comprehensive understanding of healthcare carbon hotspots and life cycle assessment methodologies and interpretation. Participants will learn to critically analyse relevant studies and publications to assist in the evidence based impactful advances urgently needed to address healthcare’s carbon footprint.

Presented by the Department of Critical Care. 

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