Costs of Care and ABIM Foundation Seek Innovations and Bright Ideas in Advancing Stewardship in Medical Education

PHILADELPHIA—Costs of Care and the ABIM Foundation are launching the second annual Teaching Value and Choosing Wisely Challenge to help identify the most promising innovations and bright ideas for teaching high-value care and stewardship to medical trainees.

The Challenge builds on the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely campaign. While the campaign is helping change the way many physicians practice, it is important that the goals of Choosing Wisely be imparted to the next generation of doctors. However, traditional medical training programs offer few opportunities for physicians-in-training to learn how to deliver the highest quality care at the lowest possible cost when they enter practice.

To help address this gap, Costs of Care has created the Teaching Value Project, that in addition to the Challenge, includes a series of educational modules for trainees and medical educators illustrating core principles of resource stewardship.

“The Physician Charter calls on physicians to provide health care that is based on the wise and cost-effective management of limited resources,” said Richard J. Baron, MD, President and CEO of the ABIM Foundation. “It is incumbent on us to ensure future physicians have the tools and training they need so that they can deliver on the commitment to provide high-quality care to their patients while being good stewards of our health care system.”

The Teaching Value and Choosing Wisely Challenge is open to medical students, residents, fellows and faculty. Participants will submit short abstracts that either describe a project they have already implemented or an idea for a project they believe could have promise. In 2013, the Teaching Value and Choosing Wisely Challenge received more than 70 entries and six winners were declared in the categories of “Bright Ideas” and “Innovations”.

“Effective stewardship of health care resources is not just a matter of making sure that trainees understand the evidence. They must also learn how to deliver care differently,” said Neel Shah, MD, Founder and Executive Director at Costs of Care. “We are seeking new ideas and field-tested innovations that will help prepare the next generation of physicians to deliver the highest quality of care with the least amount of waste.”

Entries will be accepted through January 15, 2015 at http://www.costsofcare.org/teachingvalue. A panel of judges comprised of leaders in medical education will review the entries and winners will be announced in late April.

Challenge judges include:

• Darrell Kirch, MD, President, Association of American Medical Colleges
• Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, MD, President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Clarence H. Braddock III, MD, Vice Dean for Medical Education, UCLA Geffen School of Medicine
• Amy Berman, RN, Senior Program Officer, Hartford Foundation
• Vivian Lee, MD, PhD, CEO, University of Utah Health Care

In conjunction with the Challenge, the ABIM Foundation will host a learning network open to all Challenge participants and those interested in advancing stewardship initiatives. The network will convene clinicians across the country who are committed to improving health care delivery and feature monthly spotlights on leadership strategies in medical education. For more information on joining the learning network, contact Alison Brecher at abrecher@abim.org.

About the ABIM Foundation The mission of the ABIM Foundation is to advance medical professionalism to improve the health care system. We achieve this by collaborating with physicians and physician leaders, medical trainees, health care delivery systems, payers, policy makers, consumer organizations and patients to foster a shared understanding of professionalism and how they can adopt the tenets of professionalism in practice. To learn more about the ABIM Foundation, visit https://abimfoundation.org, read the Medical Professionalism Blog, connect with us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

About Costs of Care Costs of Care is a nonprofit organization that is transforming American healthcare delivery using a combination of advocacy, education and technology to help caregivers deflate medical bills. Connect at http://www.CostsOfCare.org.

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