​There are several different reasons why you may choose a specific care pathway to appraise which will be individual to your area of practice.

Examples include:
• A high-volume pathway which has the potential to instigate carbon-savings on a large scale across your patient population
• A pathway which is known to (or predicted to) have significant carbon hotspots requiring closer attention (e.g. pathways with surgical procedures)
• A low-volume but high-complexity pathway which may benefit from appraisal to streamline services and maximise efficiency in delivering patient care
• A pathway within which you have little understanding of the environmental impact and want to gain a better insight for future pathway development
• A pathway that is undergoing review or re-design for non-environmental reasons, providing an opportunity to ensure environmental impact is considered during the development process

For a simple high-level appraisal, the minimum data requirement is to know how many times each module component is present for a patient within your specific care pathway. Even if no additional information is available, you can use our example activity carbon emission data to gain an estimated carbon footprint for your patient care pathway. Any additional data you do have will add further granularity to the process and enable you to gain a more detailed understanding of areas where meaningful change can be made.

The decision of how to input patient data is left to the user. Ideally you would utilise data from a range of patients within your pathway to gain a detailed analysis which is representative of the wider patient population. However we understand that it may only be feasible to enter information for a limited number of patients, or one designated patient who you feel illustrates the standard pathway for the whole cohort.

As part of this process, we are keen to understand how the webpage and guidance documents are being used in clinical practice and what changes are being implemented as a result. We would welcome the sharing of case studies to be featured on this webpage for dissemination to the wider clinical network. Please email us at info@shcoalition.org.