PhD candidate
E-mail: rebekka.brandwijk@maastrichtuniversity.nl
ORCID: 0009-0006-8892-4583
Related Projects: CAREFREE
Life Cycle Assessment for Sustainable Health Care (part of the CAREFREE project) Healthcare is one of the most essential industries in the world, as it can help prevent and cure diseases and improve the quality of life. However, the sector unfortunately is also very polluting; the Dutch healthcare sector is estimated to be responsible for approximately 7% of national greenhouse gas emissions and in the Netherlands alone, 190,000 kg of pharmaceuticals of pharmaceuticals are emitted into the sewage system and subsequently
surface water every year. The CAREFREE (Creating A healthieR Environment for FutuRE patiEnts) project aims to make the sector more sustainable, by filling currently existing knowledge gaps (among other things). The project specifically focuses on laparoscopic cholecystectomy (surgical removal of the gallbladder). My role within the project is to analyze the environmental impacts of specific laparoscopic procedures using Life Cycle Assessment.
This is done by gathering all required in- and outputs for all processes throughout the lifecycle. Subsequently, this data is linked to environmental damage. This also allows us to determine which part or phase of a procedure contributes the most to the environmental damage, and see where there are opportunities to improve the sustainability
Expertise
- Life Cycle Assessment
- Data analysis
- Healthcare systems and innovations
Previous Education
- BSc. in Biology and Medical Laboratory Research, Avans University of Applied Sciences, Breda, The Netherlands.
- MSc. in Medical Biology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
- 1st year specialization: Neurobiology
- 2nd year specialization: Science, Management & Innovation