Patient education is one of my passions, so I absolutely love the Choosing Wisely ® initiative by the ABIM Foundation which promotes informed conversations between patients and their health care providers.
The Foundation’s goal is to help patients choose their care wisely and ensure that all care is:
- Supported by evidence
- Not duplicative of other tests or procedures already received
- Free from harm
- Truly necessary
The Foundation has the support of dozens of medical associations including the American Occupational Therapy Association and the American Physical Therapy Association. Each association has provided their own list of tests and procedures they believe to be overused or unnecessary.
The recommendations are easy to search on the Choose Wisely® web site by keyword, society, topic area, age, setting or service. The initiative also has an app so you can access during a healthcare visit. The recommendations are meant to guide conversation between providers and patients, so that a patient’s decision is well informed.
The foundation provides practical advice to healthcare providers starting a Choose Wisely® philosophy in their practice with interactive videos, case studies and a resource library. ABIM Foundation has also compiled a Top 12 list of recommendations that drove the largest decrease in unnecessary tests and procedures.
Every OT should check out the tests and procedures that AOTA believes are unnecessary or overused, and then explore the site to see how you might implement a Choose Wisely® philosophy in your practice or with own health care.
Best
Cheryl Hall, OT
Author and Illustrator, Occupational Therapy Toolkit
