Post by Josh Kotecha

I’m really pleased to share our recently published paper in Current Problems in Surgery, “Greening Lean: Overcoming Barriers to Integrating Environmental Practices in Surgical Lean Management Projects.” This builds upon the research we undertook within our intercalated year in Management. Surgery is one of the most resource-intensive areas in healthcare, and this work explores how lean management — already widely used to improve quality and efficiency — can also support environmental sustainability in the operating theatre. What we found: 🔹 Lean approaches can reduce waste, resource use, and emissions in surgical settings, but environmental outcomes are rarely measured. 🔹 Implementation is often limited by unclear ownership of sustainability goals, siloed working, hierarchical structures, and a lack of environmental training. 🔹 When environmental objectives are embedded into lean projects, operational efficiency and sustainability can be improved together. Why it matters: As healthcare systems work toward Net Zero targets, aligning continuous improvement with environmental responsibility is increasingly important. Huge thanks to my co-authors - Samruddhi Tagalpallewar, Mel H. Sarker, Emily Deng, Christie T., Diya Banerjee, Thejas K - and our supervisor Dr Laure de Preux Gallone for an enjoyable and insightful collaboration. Looking forward to developing this space further along side my clinical career! 📄 Read the paper here: https://lnkd.in/eQyeUiBM