In 2010, The Choosing Wisely campaign, launched by the American Board of Internal
Medicine sought to help physicians and patients engage in conversations about unnecessary
tests, treatments and procedures [
[1]
]. The idea emerged of creating “top 5” lists of low-value health care activities
as a way to confront rising medical costs and encourage cost-conscious care [
[2]
]. The initial goal was not necessarily to reduce costs but rather to tackle the erroneous
assumption that more care is always better according to a quality and safety perspective.
The Choosing Wisely campaign spread rapidly, being adopted in more than 15 other countries.
In 2014, the Swiss Society of General Internal Medicine launched smarter medicine
campaign and published the first top five list for ambulatory medicine extending to
the hospital setting subsequently [
[3]
]. Recently, other specialties joined the movement such as intensive care, geriatric
and gastroenterology [
[4]
]. Overall in Switzerland, the campaign appears to thrive and is mostly welcomed by
physicians from most specialties, general practice being the most studied as of now
[
[5]
]. The project advocates for a better use of limited resources through a reconsideration
of the usefulness of common medical acts in the light of the evidence-based medicine
and the less is more philosophy.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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References
- Engaging physicians and consumers in conversations about treatment overuse and waste: a short history of the choosing wisely campaign.Acad Med. 2014 Jul; 89: 990-995
- The “top 5” lists in primary care: meeting the responsibility of professionalism.Arch Intern Med. 2011 Aug 8; 171: 1385-1390
- Creating a list of low-value health care activities in Swiss Primary Care.JAMA Intern Med. 2015 Apr 1; 175: 640
- “Choosing Wisely”: a growing international campaign.BMJ Qual Saf. 2015 Feb; 24: 167-174
- How do Swiss general practitioners agree with and report adhering to a top-five list of unnecessary tests and treatments? Results of a cross-sectional survey.Eur J Gen Pract. 2018 Dec; 24: 32-38
American Board of Internal Medicine. Chosing Wisely Recommandations [Internet]. [cited 2018 Mar 14]. Available from: http://www.choosingwisely.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Choosing-Wisely-Recommendations.pdf.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 04, 2018
Accepted:
March 29,
2018
Received in revised form:
March 28,
2018
Received:
March 26,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
