The Medical Professionalism Blog
Category Archives: Choosing Wisely®
Recommended Reading: June 8-14
Read the latest articles on Choosing Wisely®in this week’s Recommended Reading: Former ABIM Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Christine Cassel authored an Institute of Medicine commentary entitled, “Choosing Wisely: Grounded in Physician Professionalism.“ The authors of “The Choosing Wisely campaign and nurses role in dissemination” discuss the American Geriatrics Society’s Choosing Wisely recommendations and [...]
One Group’s Commitment to Putting Choosing Wisely® into Practice
In April 2012, as part of the Choosing Wisely campaign, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) announced its list of five tests and procedures where the risks did not exceed the benefits. Two recommendations ASCO included on its lists were: Don’t perform PET, CT and radionuclide bone scans in the staging of early breast cancer [...]
The Courage of Choosing Wisely® – A Letter to François de Brantes
Dear François, Over the many years I have known you, I have always respected your purchaser perspective and your many contributions to quality measurement and attempts to measure costs of episodes of care and increase awareness about the cost of care. Without employers insisting on accountability and receiving information on quality and cost, the quality [...]
Choosing Wisely®: Will Changes in the First State Spark Change Across the Nation?
We receive a lot of requests from health care systems and hospitals eager for me to come and speak about the Choosing Wisely campaign and recommendations. I recently received an invitation from an internal medicine department at a large health system in Delaware to speak at their day-long retreat. After accepting the invitation, I discovered [...]
Choosing Wisely® and the Rubik’s Cube®
After speaking at an academic medical center and physician-run health plan about Choosing Wisely, a physician told me that he had concluded that the complexity of implementing the Choosing Wisely recommendations was like solving a Rubik’s Cube. I took that to mean there were multiple changes that all had to align before the recommendations could [...]
Postscript on Incurable and Irreversible: A Story of Overuse and Underuse at the End-of-Life
In my previous post, Incurable and Irreversible, I addressed the ambiguous language of my mother-in-law’s advanced directive at the time of her initial stroke. This post addresses the events surrounding my mother-in-law’s final days. During her stay in the hospital after her stroke, we were confronted by the decision whether or not my mother-in-law should [...]
Choosing Wisely®: Let the Sunshine In
The day we launched the Choosing Wisely campaign, one year ago, we never envisioned that it would attract the attention of so many physicians across the county. Choosing Wisely has become a catalyst for conversations between patients and physicians. It has provided tools to support both patients and physicians in the pursuit of appropriate health [...]
One Doc’s Reactions to Choosing Wisely®: An Interview with Dr. Blair Erb
Dr. Blair Erb of Bozeman Deaconess Health Group, located in Bozeman, MT, is a Trustee of the American College of Cardiology and sits on the Clinical Quality Committee steering committee. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and in Cardiovascular Disease. His special interests include echocardiography, valvular heart disease and risk factor modification. Dr. Erb [...]
Recommended Reading: April 6 – 12
Catch up on the latest Choosing Wisely® articles in this week’s Recommended Reading: In The Recent Reversal of the Growth Trend in MRI: A Harbinger of the Future?, the authors report that MRI utilization rose sharply from 1998 to 2008 then declined from 2008 to 2010. They cite a number of possible causes for the [...]
Medical Educators Need to Take Charge and Help Deflate Medical Bills
At a time when one in three Americans report difficulty paying medical bills, up to $750 billion is being spent on care that does not help patients become healthier. Although physicians are routinely required to manage expensive resources, traditional medical training offers few opportunities to learn how to deliver the highest quality care at the [...]
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