ABIM Foundation Announces New Choosing Wisely Champions Program
March 10, 2016
Clinicians to be recognized for efforts to reduce potentially unnecessary—and sometimes harmful—tests and treatments
PHILADELPHIA – The ABIM Foundation today announced a new component of the Choosing Wisely campaign—the Choosing Wisely Champions program, a national initiative to help recognize clinicians who are leading efforts to reduce overuse and waste in medicine. More than a dozen leading medical specialty societies representing a diverse cross-section of health care have committed to participate in the program.
They include:
- AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine
- American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology
- American Academy of Nursing
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus
- American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine
- American College of Preventive Medicine
- American College of Radiology
- American Geriatrics Society
- American Medical Society for Sports Medicine
- American Society for Clinical Pathology
- American Society of Echocardiography
- American Society of Hematology
- American Society of Nuclear Cardiology
- American Thoracic Society
- American Urogynecologic Society
- American Urological Association
- Society of Hospital Medicine
- Society for Vascular Medicine
Participating societies will identify clinicians, or teams of clinicians, whose work in their respective specialties represents significant contributions to advancing the goals of the Choosing Wisely campaign by encouraging conversations about avoiding unnecessary care. These contributions could include creating an intervention to implement Choosing Wisely in their clinical practice, local initiatives to educate colleagues or playing a leadership role in developing society recommendations.
Societies will share their Champions nomination process with their members throughout 2016, with several planning to announce awardees by the end of the year. They will recognize their Champions in a variety of ways, including annual meetings, society publications and speaking opportunities. Through stories of change, more clinicians will hear about ways to bring Choosing Wisely into practice and increase the number of conversations they are having with their patients about what tests and treatments are right for them.
“The Choosing Wisely campaign, with the help and support of our more than 70 society partners and Consumer Reports, has done a remarkable job of raising awareness of the problem of overuse, and clinicians across the country are having important conversations with their patients,” said Richard J. Baron, MD, President and CEO of the ABIM Foundation. “But more needs to be done to get more clinicians and health systems engaged. One of the best ways to increase this engagement is to share stories of clinicians who have developed and implemented innovative ideas to ensure critical conversations about avoiding unnecessary care become the norm across our health care system.”
The Champions program supports clinicians’ aspirations to reduce waste and overuse in health care and improve patient care. According to a survey of clinicians commissioned by the ABIM Foundation, nearly three out of four clinicians say the frequency with which doctors order unnecessary medical tests and procedures is a serious problem for our health care system. And more than half think they are in the best position to address the issue of overuse and have ultimate responsibility for making sure patients avoid unnecessary care. The Choosing Wisely Champions program is designed to recognize those dedicated to providing appropriate care and encourage others to follow their lead.
Launched in 2012, the Choosing Wisely campaign continues to be widely recognized across the U.S. health care system as a leading effort to encourage conversations between patients and clinicians about what care is truly necessary. More than 70 medical specialty societies are partners in the effort and have collectively identified more than 400 tests and treatments they say are overused in their specialty. Consumer Reports, a partner in the campaign, works with many of the specialty societies to develop patient-friendly materials from the lists of recommendations and disseminates them to consumers through a network of consumer partners.
For more information about Choosing Wisely, visit www.choosingwisely.org.
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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 www.abimfoundation.org, connect with us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
About Choosing Wisely®
First announced in December 2011, Choosing Wisely® is part of a multi-year effort led by the ABIM Foundation to support and engage physicians in being better stewards of finite health care resources. Participating specialty societies are working with the ABIM Foundation and Consumer Reports to share the lists widely with their members and convene discussions about the physician’s role in helping patients make wise choices. Learn more at www.ChoosingWisely.org.
