Ten years ago the ABIM Foundation announced a new effort with a lofty goal to improve health care: encourage clinicians to have meaningful conversations with their patients to help avoid unnecessary tests and procedures, many of which offer little benefit and, in some cases, do more harm than good.
Earlier this year the ABIM Foundation launched its Building Trust Initiative with the goal of elevating the importance of trust as an essential organizing principle to guide operations and improvements in health care. And since that launch, we’ve been creating resources to help organizations across various health care sectors start on their own journey of building trust with their staff, community and stakeholders.
We Got Us sponsors virtual “empowerment sessions” that are national in scope and are often done in coordination with other organizations, such as Black sororities or churches.
The lessons learned from Choosing Wisely not only taught us methods to reduce overuse, but also taught us about the key behaviors needed to build trust – one being a simple, well-informed conversation between clinician and patient within an already established relationship.
At the ABIM Foundation’s annual Forum in early August, more than 130 clinicians, advocates and other leaders in health care came together to discuss how health care organizations can act to advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and engender trust among their patients, clinicians, staff, and from the communities they serve. Love was mentioned so many times in conversation, during presentations and in the chat that we lost count.
