HealthBeacon explores sustainable alternatives to sharps waste disposal and the impact of our HealthBeacon Green Labs initiative
This year, HealthBeacon commissioned GlobalPSC, an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to facilitating the development of effective product stewardship and EPR schemes globally, to build upon and update research that they had previously published on the use of Reusable Sharps Containers.
This new report highlights key considerations for the stewardship of sharps containers, and in particular, the business case for reusable sharps containers in the home healthcare setting. While the use of reusable sharps containers has been growing in hospital settings since the 1980s, there are no current examples of reusable sharps containers in home healthcare outside of the initiative launched by HealthBeacon. With the move toward more remote patient care monitoring, accelerated by COVID 19, this is a growing segment of healthcare, and proper stewardship of sharps waste will need to be addressed.
By moving to a reusable model, stakeholders have the opportunity to align with circular economy principles and move towards a carbon neutral future.
For a copy of the Business Case Report, the full Background Report or both, please send an email to comms@healthbeacon.com.
Marion Briggs
Marion joined the HealthBeacon team as their Sustainability Project Manager. A passionate environmentalist and sustainability advocate, she brings her sustainability experience from working with Friends of the Earth and her business experience from her past as a small business owner to bear on helping HealthBeacon to achieve their ambitious goals, driving the launching of their HealthBeacon Green Labs in Ireland and abroad.
About GlobalPSC
The GlobalPSC is an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to facilitating the development of effective product stewardship and EPR schemes globally. The GlobalPSC has members operating worldwide that span producers, product recovery organizations, reprocessors, NGOs, universities and governments at federal, state and local levels. HealthBeacon commissioned this GlobalPSC research to update the GlobalPSC’s 2016 report for the US healthcare industry on product stewardship and EPR programs for sharps.
About HealthBeacon
HealthBeacon is a medication adherence technology company which develops smart tools for managing medication at home. HealthBeacon’s FDA cleared smart sharps bin tracks patient injection history, provides personalized interactive reminders and safely stores used injectables. With the intervention of HealthBeacon’s Smart Sharps Technology, patients’ persistence and adherence increased by 25-30% within twelve months of initiating therapy. The HealthBeacon integrated model connects a patient’s routine and the prescribing clinician’s workflow. This technology has been adopted across thirteen countries with >400,000 injections tracked since launch in 2014, with a patient acceptance rate of 80-90%.