The Medical Professionalism Blog
Tag Archives: overuse of medical tests
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 [...]
Grants Take Choosing Wisely® from Grasstops to Grassroots
The Choosing Wisely® campaign has attracted a lot of attention from the so-called “grasstops” in the form of physician leaders, policy makers, researchers, delivery system leaders, journal authors and the media. This top-down strategy was necessary given a political environment that invoked terms such as “rationing” and “death panels.” Yet, the “grasstops” strategy of the [...]
Recommended Reading: March 23 – 29
Learn about the roles of patients and physicians in managing health care resources in this week’s Recommended Reading: In “Educating Physicians about Responsible Management of Finite Resources,” ABIM/ABIM Foundation President & CEO Christine K. Cassel, MD and co-authors advocate for physician education in “health care waste, abuse, fraud, and the ethical underpinnings of physician decisions, [...]
Recommended Reading: March 2 – 8
Check out the latest Choosing Wisely® articles in this week’s Recommended Reading: A Scientific American article noted the importance of Choosing Wisely’s emphasis on promoting conversations between physicians and patients. They note that the “dialogue is most successful, though, when consumers understand before they get sick that screening and treatment can cause harm.” In The [...]
Choosing Wisely®: We Have Just Begun
“The campaign has turned into a movement,” said Christine K. Cassel, CEO of the ABIM Foundation and American Board of Internal Medicine at the February 21st Choosing Wisely® announcement of 18 additional lists of tests physicians and patients should question. Since April 4, 2012, we have received tremendous gifts from the partners in the Choosing [...]
Recommended Reading: February 16 – 22
This week’s Recommended Reading spotlights the release of a new round of Choosing Wisely® lists. This week, seventeen medical specialty societies each unveiled new lists of five medical tests, procedures or therapies which are commonly used but may not always be necessary: Choosing Wisely partner Consumer Reports featured the campaign in a recent blog post, [...]
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