Choosing Wisely Is Now An App!
To further awareness of the campaign among clinicians and patients, the ABIM Foundation has launched a Choosing Wisely app.
The new app makes the 500-plus specialty society recommendations and more than 100 patient resources available at the touch of an iPhone/iPad or Android screen.
Through the new app, clinicians are able to search the recommendations using keywords, as well as filter by specialty, age, setting and service (e.g., imaging, medication, treatment, lab, test). Patient materials are organized similarly, by health topic (e.g., “common cold” or “back pain”), medical specialty, society and age. The recommendations are linked to any relevant patient-friendly resources, and both can be shared via text or email with colleagues or patients.
The app is already receiving positive reviews from both clinicians and patient groups. iMedicalApps, a leading online publication for medical professionals, patients, and analysts interested in mobile medical technology and health care apps, rated it 4.5 stars (out of five), saying “Finally, we have all of the Choosing Wisely recommendations in one place for providers to easily access on their mobile devices… I will certainly encourage my fellow providers, residents and fellows to use it and share the PDFs with patients.”
In a piece entitled “An App To Guide You Toward Health Care That You Need and Away From Care That You Don’t,” New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute President and CEO Linda J. Schwimmer, JD, urged patients to “stop paying for tests, interventions, surgeries and medications that don’t help us — and may even harm us. The first place to start, in my opinion, is with Choosing Wisely, especially now when there’s an app for that.”
Talus Media’s physical therapy news August 7 podcast noted that the app gives “patients and providers access to over 500 medical lists of procedures that are frequently done but whose usefulness should be questioned. Patient friendly resources are also available through the app.” (The American Physical Therapy Association’s five Choosing Wisely recommendations were released in August of 2014).
