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alliance-blog

Celebrating 5 years of Choosing Wisely

Today we celebrate Choosing Wisely’s 5th anniversary! The Alliance is proud to be a grantee of this exciting and important campaign and to play a part in helping to advance its goals in Washington state.

Choosing Wisely® is a national initiative of the ABIM Foundation, in partnership with Consumer Reports, that is helping physicians and patients have conversations about the overuse of tests and procedures and supporting physician efforts to help patients make smart and effective care choices.

The past five years have been busy here in Washington state. The Alliance and the Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) continue to partner and support the work of the Washington State Choosing Wisely Task Force – a collaboration of health systems, medical groups, and health plans and partners across the state which have chosen to make Choosing Wisely a priority. Notable achievements include publishing the Choosing Wisely Action Manual for physicians, technical specifications that provide measures for evaluating provider implementation of Choosing Wisely recommendations, a clinical toolkit for consumer engagement, and two Choosing Wisely reports measuring appropriate use of select Choosing Wisely recommendations. And we’ll soon be sharing details about the second Choosing Wisely summit, to be held October 27, 2017.

Learn more about the Alliance’s work with Choosing Wisely, and the Washington State Choosing Wisely Task Force.

Here are some of the great resources developed by the Choosing Wisely campaign.

Choosing Wisely Provider Stories: These are stories of how five doctors and one physician assistant have used the Consumer Reports Choosing Wisely materials in their practices — and what happened.

Here are some facts and figures about the ways Choosing Wisely is helping encourage conversations aimed at reducing unnecessary tests and treatments in health care:

Published: April 4, 2017

About Washington Health Alliance

The Washington Health Alliance is a place where stakeholders work collaboratively to transform Washington state’s health care system for the better. The Alliance brings together organizations that share a commitment to drive change in our health care system by offering a forum for critical conversation and aligned efforts by stakeholders: purchasers, providers, health plans, consumers and other health care partners. The Alliance believes strongly in transparency and offers trusted and credible reporting of progress on measures of health care quality and value. The Alliance is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit with more than 185 member organizations. A cornerstone of the Alliance's work is the Community Checkup, a report to the public comparing the performance of medical groups, hospitals and health plans and offering a community-level view on important measures of health care quality (www.wacommunitycheckup.org).

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