Three Primary Care Clinics Increase Adherence to Choosing Wisely Recommendations

​In three primary care residency clinics, adherence to five recommendations from the Choosing Wisely campaign was high (93% rate of adherence) before education and intervention but still rose significantly afterward (to 96%), reports a study in the August 2015 Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. The Choosing Wisely campaign aims to reduce "unnecessary medical tests, treatments and procedures." The intervention was implemented by two family medicine clinics and one internal medicine clinic. An hour-long, in-person session or online webinar reviewed the recommendations, and a "stepwise" approach to communicating a recommendations-based plan of care to patients was adopted. Adherence was measured by review of 1,089 patient charts over two six-month periods, one before and one after the intervention's launch.