Like thousands of other medical students in Canada, Dr. Kevin Liang had no idea he would be asked to take more than 10 flights during his last year for in-person residency interviews. “After learning this, I knew I had to quantify the climate impact from thousands of students travelling for CaRMS (the Canadian Resident Matching Service).”
Dr. Liang, a UBC Family Medicine resident in Vancouver, along with co-authors Jessica Dawson (U.Alberta) and Matei Stoian (UBC), and three other co-authors from the Canadian Institute for Climate Choices, UBC, and Concordia University, quantified the impacts of this practice in a study in the journal Medical Teacher, “A carbon footprint study of the Canadian medical residency interview tour.” The results were sobering, but also offer a clear path for action:
“Mandatory in-person residency interviews in Canada contribute significant emissions and reflect a culture of emissions-intensive practices. Considerable decarbonization of the CaRMS tour is possible, and transitioning to virtual interviews could eliminate the footprint almost entirely.”
Now Kevin and co-authors are supporting a culture of engagement and advocacy to #keepCaRMSvirtual as part of efforts to decarbonize the entire Canadian healthcare system.
Please visit the UBC Climate Emergency website to read the full story.
Through Strategy 3: Thriving Communities, UBC is advancing sustainability and wellbeing through renewal and innovation in our learning environments, operations and infrastructure.