The North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) is among the groups working with the North Carolina Healthcare Quality Alliance (NCHQA) to reduce the use of medical tests and treatments that the Choosing Wisely campaign has identified as overused. The effort is thanks to a grant from the ABIM Foundation grant program and will enable NCHQA to build a multi-stakeholder alliance to reduce the use of antibiotics to treat viral infections in adults, DEXA scans to measure bone density in women younger than 65 and men younger than 70, carotid artery stenosis screening in asymptomatic patients, and annual Pap tests for women between the ages of 30 and 65.
Duke Medicine and Cornerstone Health Care will each implement three Choosing Wisely recommendations, reducing targeted tests and treatments by 20 percent over three years. In addition, the NCMS, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and the State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees will launch complementary efforts to educate clinicians and consumers in North Carolina about the problem of overuse and the Choosing Wisely campaign.
NCHQA was one of seven grantees that the ABIM Foundation selected to receive funding.
Launched in April 2012, Choosing Wisely encourages clinicians and patients to discuss which medical tests and procedures may be unnecessary for their condition, and in some instances, can cause harm.
“The new Choosing Wisely grantees are undertaking a systematic effort to make a measurable difference on some of the most pervasive examples of waste or overuse in our nation’s health care system,” said Richard Baron, MD, president and CEO of the ABIM Foundation. “The diverse regional health care coalitions selected for these grants all include active clinician participation and leadership, continuing the campaign’s emphasis on working with the health care community to put the Choosing Wisely recommendations into practice.”
