Blog Category: Letters from the Foundation

I have been thinking a lot about the “trust” that needs to exist between the public and institutions, and what the repercussions of losing that trust are. After the Enron scandal, public trust was lost in corporations and the accounting industry (which in turn had a negative effect on the financial markets). To ensure the… Read more »

I had the honor of speaking at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia on September 23. One of the goals of my session was to announce ASTRO’s Choosing Wisely list of five tests and procedures that patient and physicians should question. Actually, Michael Steinberg, MD, chair of the board… Read more »

The 2013 ABIM Foundation Forum was entitled “Purpose vs. Payment:  Motivating Change in Health Care.”  The title was, of course, a false dichotomy. Going into the meeting, I was pretty sure that the collective answer would be “both, of course!” But as the animated and spirited conversations among the participants continued over the three-day meeting,… Read more »

I was turning a ripe old age and wanted to improve my physical conditioning. My program included hoisting two 15-pound dumbbells and two sets of twenty sit-ups. This exercise, intended to preserve my last trace of youth, resulted in a self-inflicted injury of my left elbow. After a very uncomfortable month, I relented and sought… Read more »

In rural Maine, Choosing Wisely brought primary care and specialists together to discuss the recommendations – a positive, unintended consequence of the campaign. Early in the development of the campaign, we learned that physicians did a lot of finger-pointing around who was responsible for overuse. The primary care physicians blamed the specialists and the specialists… Read more »