Choosing Wisely: setbacks and progress

The Choosing Wisely campaign has suffered some setbacks lately. First came the withdrawal of a medical professional society from the campaign, and then came an analysis showing that doctors haven’t changed their practices since the launch of the campaign.

To make matters worse, there are disagreements among the societies, with some charging that others are interfering with their turf and that self interest and money have made some recommendations less than useful.

But others see signs of progress and a thriving project still in its infancy.

The Choosing Wisely campaign grew out of a project by the National Physicians Alliance to reduce low value or potentially harmful interventions and was funded by the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation. Now 70 professional societies list 400 “top five” recommendations to reduce low value interventions.