The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) has launched the inaugural Choosing Wisely Champions program in collaboration with the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation. The program will recognize individual clinicians, as well as teams of clinicians, and their commitment to the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely campaign.
Launched in 2012, the Choosing Wisely campaign aims to reduce test overuse, to encourage clinicians and patients to question which tests are necessary, and to improve the nation’s healthcare system. ASCP joined the effort in 2013.
Lee H. Hilborne, MD, MPH, DLM(ASCP)CM, FASCP.
“The Choosing Wisely Champions program seeks to recognize clinicians for their contributions to the campaign, inspire clinicians seeking to implement Choosing Wisely in their own practice, and demonstrate how clinicians are driving change in healthcare,” says Lee H. Hilborne, MD, MPH, DLM(ASCP)CM, FASCP, chair of the ASCP effective test utilization subcommittee. “Clinicians can learn from one another by highlighting exemplars.”
When nominating a champion, some areas to consider include individuals or teams that have:
- Advanced Choosing Wisely in their practice.
- Played a major role in development of ASCP’s Choosing Wisely recommendations.
- Helped educate ASCP members about Choosing Wisely and its recommendations.
- Conducted measurement of recommendations.
- Validated research of importance to recommendations.
- Demonstrated leadership of a localized Choosing Wisely effort.
- Served as a spokesperson for the society or Choosing Wisely campaign.
With a goal of advancing a national dialogue on avoiding wasteful or unnecessary medical tests, treatments, and procedures, Choosing Wisely centers around conversations between providers and patients informed by the evidence-based recommendations of “things providers and patients should question.” More than 70 specialty society partners have released recommendations with the intention of facilitating wise decisions about the most appropriate care based on a patient’s individual situation.
E. Blair Holladay, PhD, CEO of ASCP.
“Currently, healthcare delivery in the United States contains practices that may provide little, if any, benefit to patients,” says E. Blair Holladay, PhD, CEO of ASCP. “Pathologists and laboratory professionals need to play a leadership role in addressing these challenges. It is critical that pathologists and laboratory professionals contribute to improving patient care and reducing the high cost of healthcare in the United States. Measuring outcomes is essential in the fast-approaching evolution of healthcare and is underscored by the axiom, ‘right test, right patient, right time, at the right cost.’”
Nominations for Choosing Wisely Champions should include a brief description of how clinicians are implementing Choosing Wisely and examples of how those contributions are advancing the goals of the campaign. The deadline for submitting nominations is April 7. For more information, visit ASCP, or contact Edna Garcia, MPH, senior manager of scientific engagement and research for the ASCP Institute of Science, Technology and Policy, at [email protected].
