ASCP Launches Inaugural Choosing Wisely® Champions with ABIM Foundation
(PRWEB) March 12, 2016 -- The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) is launching 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.
Since ASCP joined the Choosing Wisely® campaign in 2013, many ASCP members have been working to advance its ideals, which are intended to reduce test overuse and to encourage clinicians and patients to question which tests are really necessary to reduce test overuse and improve the nation’s healthcare system.
“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 health care,” says Lee H. Hilborne, MD, MPH, DLM(ASCP)CM, FASCP, Chair, 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/or recommendations
• Conducted measurement of recommendations
• Validated research of importance of recommendations
• Demonstrated leadership of a localized Choosing Wisely® effort
• Served as a spokesperson for the Society or Choosing Wisely® campaign
The ABIM Foundation launched Choosing Wisely® in 2012 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 patients’ individual situation.
“Currently, healthcare delivery in the United States contains practices that may provide little, if any, benefit to patient,” said Dr. E. Blair Holladay, ASCP Chief Executive Officer. “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 health care in the United States. Measuring outcomes is essential in the fast-approaching evolution of health care 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, contact Edna Garcia, MPH, Senior Manager of Scientific Engagement and Research for the ASCP Institute of Science, Technology and Policy, at [email protected].
About ASCP
Founded in 1922 in Chicago, ASCP is a medical professional society with more than 100,000 member board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologists, pathology residents and fellows, laboratory professionals, and students. ASCP provides excellence in education, certification, and advocacy on behalf of patients, pathologists, and laboratory professionals. To learn more, visit http://www.ascp.org. Follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ascp_chicago and connect with us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ASCP.Chicago.
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Susan Montgomery, American Society for Clinical Pathology, +1 312-541-4754, [email protected]
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