Depok, May 7, 2026 — Hospitals, while serving as centers of healing, often leave an environmental footprint through the emission of anesthetic gases. Volatile gases such as sevoflurane, isoflurane, desflurane, and nitrous oxide, which are used in thousands of surgical procedures, are released into the atmosphere without adequate treatment. This concern inspired a cross-university student team to develop a practical solution through the Ramathibodi Pitching Challenge 2026, held in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 4, 2026.
Naufal Akram and Ayesha Daanii Nayyara, students from the Faculty of Public Health (FPH), Universitas Indonesia (UI), majoring in Environmental Health and Public Health respectively, joined forces with Afifah Zahwah Nuryana from Universiti Malaya, Faris Abqori from Institut Teknologi Surabaya (ITS), and Lovely Ni’mah Anugerah Guru from the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia (FEB UI). Together, they secured the First Runner-Up position in the prestigious competition.
Through their innovative proposal entitled “TRI-OR: A Three-Level Strategy for Mitigating Anesthetic Gas-Related Emissions in a Thai Tertiary Hospital,” the team introduced an integrated strategic framework designed to systematically reduce anesthetic gas emissions in tertiary hospitals in Thailand.
TRI-OR, which literally means “three layers,” reflects the philosophy behind the team’s proposed approach. The team explained that mitigating anesthetic gas emissions cannot be addressed through a single intervention; instead, it requires interconnected components functioning as an integrated system.
“The first layer is Source Reduction, which focuses on optimizing anesthetic drug use and reducing gas flow rates during procedures. This strategy also encourages clinicians to consider the environmental impact of their practices. The second layer is Emission Capture, utilizing titanium dioxide-based technology through an active catalytic destruction mechanism, where waste volatile anesthetic gases are captured and broken down before polluting the air. The third layer is Monitoring & Optimization, a real-time emissions monitoring system that enables hospital management to continuously improve performance through the use of an integrated dashboard,” explained Akram and Ayesha while describing the three stages of the TRI-OR framework.
The multidisciplinary perspective represented within the team reflects a growing awareness that environmental health challenges in the modern era cannot be solved by a single field of expertise. Hospital gas emissions are simultaneously a clinical, technical, economic, and policy issue. TRI-OR was therefore developed to address all four dimensions in a comprehensive and integrated manner.
The Ramathibodi Pitching Challenge is an international healthcare innovation competition organized by the Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Thailand. The competition invites student teams from various countries to present innovative solutions to real-world healthcare challenges.
As expressed by both Naufal and Ayesha, they hope to foster a more innovative ecosystem among FPH UI students, encouraging them to take an active role in solving health-related challenges within their communities.
“We hope that this innovation can continue to be developed and eventually be implemented in hospitals. Furthermore, we hope that a culture of innovation and solution-oriented discoveries will become increasingly embedded within and experienced throughout FPH UI,” they said. (ITM)A