Choosing Wisely

Tell Your Patients What They Want to Know - 04/19/2018

Patients want their doctor to provide health-related information and often feel they are not getting enough information. Choosing Wisely® can help you bridge the gap with guidelines from medical specialty societies.

Learn About Choosing Wisely With Free CME - 04/19/2018

Are you talking to your patients about choosing wisely?  Choosing Wisely® is an initiative that supports physicians’ efforts to avoid unnecessary tests and procedures by delivering the right care at the right time.

Patients Continue to Ask Doctors for Unnecessary Tests, Study Finds - 04/19/2018

Two-thirds of physicians say they have a great responsibility in making sure their patients do not receive unnecessary tests and procedures; yet even more say American physicians today are ordering these exams every week, a new survey finds.

The More Your Patients Know - 06/02/2016

In February, the Texas Institute of Health Care Quality and Efficiency released its strategic plan to guide the institute's activities for the next five years, including an initiative to improve health literacy in the state. Many physicians already are taking steps to improve health literacy among their patients. TMA is helping doctors promote health literacy by participating in the national Walk With a Doc program, which promotes patient-physician communication and healthy lifestyles, and the Choosing Wisely campaign, which allows physicians to play a key role in health care literacy by not ordering and recommending tests or treatments that cost a lot of money that have not proven to be effective.

Think Twice Before Choosing Wisely - 05/25/2016

Commentary — March 2015  By Bob Lanier, MD The Choosing Wisely campaign is a media stunt gone mainstream to prepare for single-payer rationing. Sorry, but I think it's a major political mistake with unintended consequences, and the rah-rah support of the Texas Medical Association makes me nervous. I first became aware of Choosing Wisely when, as executive medical director for a 5,000-member national specialty society, I was contacted for endorsement by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). The original task requested of our executive committee was to identify the five most "abused or overused tests" ordered by physicians in our specialty either through ignorance or for personal profit. I, of course, began to look for how this information was to be used and what the implications of the program might be. I found the Choosing Wisely concept was the brainchild of the National Physicians Alliance (NPA), whose activities in the past few years included Support for Taxes on Sod...

TMA, Texas key Partners in Choosing Wisely - 05/13/2016

The Choosing Wisely campaign, choosingwisely.org, is a "game changer in American medicine," and Texas can and should be "the vanguard state" for advancing the program. That's what Temple nephrologist Donald E. Wesson, MD, told a roomful of physicians at the Texas Medical Association's Fall Conference in September.

Radiologist Suggests You Use Choose Wisely as a Consulting Tool - 05/13/2016

Dr. Monticciolo suggests Texas radiologists spark discussion not only with their patients, but with clinicians as well by using the American College of Radiology’s Choosing Wisely list as a consulting tool.

Pediatrician: Choosing Wisely helps break bad habits - 05/13/2016

Galveston pediatrician Ben Raimer, MD, wants to make patients and physicians think twice about medical practices that are done out of habit or without proper evaluation. Dr. Raimer, who specializes in behavioral health in children, focuses on making doctors and patients more aware of the Choosing Wisely initiative. He says antibiotic overuse and unnecessary imaging are areas where patients must begin to choose wisely.

Pathologist Uses Choosing Wisely to Teach Blood Transfusion Methodology - 05/13/2016

The Houston pathologist is using Choosing Wisely to help educate patients and physicians on proper transfusion practices.

Neurologist Suggests You Choose Wisely with Your Patients - 05/13/2016

“Choosing Wisely is a good guideline as for what tests to order or are not beneficial to order,” said Dr. Patton, a Houston-area neurologist.

Internist Applies Choosing Wisely as Reinforcement for Patients' Concerns - 05/13/2016

The Choosing Wisely campaign is used to promote healthy dialogue between physicians and their patients. Begun in 2012, this physician-led movement attempts to eliminate unnecessary tests and procedures predicated on evidence-based recommendations. These recommendations come from leading medical specialty societies that have identified the five most salient issues patients could discuss with their physicians. TMA is working with the ABIM Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to make physicians and the public more aware of the lists and encourage their use.

Geriatric Specialist Uses Choosing Wisely to Help Families - 05/13/2016

Clare Hawkins, MD wants Texas physicians to use Choosing Wisely®  to discuss geriatric tests or procedures.

Family Physicians: Choose Wisely and Stop Injudicious EKGs - 05/13/2016

Eduardo Sanchez, MD, deputy chief medical officer at the American Heart Association (AHA), says Choosing Wisely can be a useful tool for physicians and an empowering resource for patients.

Do You Choose Wisely? - 05/13/2016

TMA wants to know if you have implemented the Choosing Wisely® recommendations in your practice.

Choosing Wisely: Texas Oncologist Recommends Measurement of Impact - 05/13/2016

An Austin physician wants to use hard data to expand the use of Choosing Wisely® in all medical practices. J. Russell Hoverman, MD, a hematologist and medical oncologist, is one of many Texas doctors who view the Choosing Wisely initiative as an important basis for determining the use of medical tests and procedures.

Choosing Wisely: Texas Emergency Physician is Choosing Wisely - 05/13/2016

Gerad Troutman, MD, an emergency physician at Lubbock’s University Medical Center (UMC), is using Choosing Wisely when symptoms of dehydration occur.

Choosing Wisely Heart Attack Recommendations - 05/13/2016

In light of new medical evidence, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in September withdrew one of its five recommendations in the Choosing Wisely campaign that heart attack patients question interventions beyond unblocking just the "culprit" artery responsible for the heart attack.