The Medical Professionalism Blog

This week’s Recommended Reading features articles related to the 2012 ABIM Foundation Forum, focused on wise decision-making by physicians and working within health systems.

• In Application of “Less Is More” to Low Back Pain, the authors find strong evidence supporting American Academy of Family Physician’s recommendation as part of the Choosing Wisely^® campaign, “Don’t do imaging for low back pain within the first 6 weeks unless red flags are present.” The article is accompanied by a commentary by ABIM Foundation Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Daniel Wolfson.

• In Cost Containment Redux: It’s Time for Physicians to Engage, Richard Kravitz notes the reemergence of a health care cost containment movement and that in the current movement, “physicians are more engaged in finding solutions.”

• In The Washington Post, infectious disease physician Manoj Jain writes about the Choosing Wisely campaign and acknowledges that physicians order unnecessary tests and procedures, but argues that a “just say no” approach may have limited success.