Seeking Innovative Medical Educators Interested In Teaching Value And Choosing Wisely

PHILADELPHIA- According to the CDC, one in three Americans have difficulty paying medical bills, and a report from the Institute of Medicine estimates up to $750 billion is being spent on care that does not help patients become healthier. Although physicians are routinely being asked to manage expensive resources, traditional medical training offers few opportunities to learn how to deliver the highest quality care at the lowest possible cost.

To help address this gap in medical education, Costs of Care and the ABIM Foundation have launched the Teaching Value and Choosing Wisely Competition to identify the most promising innovations and bright ideas that can be successfully implemented on a larger scale.

The competition is open to medical students, residents, fellows and faculty. Participants will submit short abstracts that either describes a project they have already implemented or an idea for a project they believe could have promise.

Submissions are due by June 15, 2013, and will be reviewed by leaders at the Association of American Medical Colleges, Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, American College of Physicians, and American College of Surgeons. Three competition winners will be invited to share their innovations at a meeting of the ABIM Foundation in November.

"Through this competition, we aim to identify the best and brightest ideas for how to teach trainees about Choosing Wisely," said Vineet Arora, M.D., Director of Education Initiatives at Costs of Care. "The hope is that ultimately these innovations will help fill a critical gap in current medical training by speeding the adoption of the most promising solutions."

The Teaching Value and Choosing Wisely Competition is supported by an ABIM Foundation grant to Costs of Care. The competition builds on the ABIM Foundation's Choosing Wisely campaign that strives to help physicians and patients engage in conversations about the overuse of tests and procedures and support physician efforts to help patients make smart and effective care choices.

"Through the Choosing Wisely campaign we've advanced a conversation about unnecessary care, but there is still a lot of work to be done," said Daniel Wolfson, EVP and COO of the ABIM Foundation. "The next generation of physicians will need tools and resources to address the challenges facing our health care system, and the ABIM Foundation is proud to support the Teaching Value and Choosing Wisely Competition."

Visit http://teachingvalue.org/competition for complete rules and submission information.


About Costs of Care
Costs of Care is a nonprofit organization that is transforming American healthcare delivery using a combination of advocacy, education, and technology to help caregivers deflate medical bills. Connect at http://www.CostsOfCare.org

About ABIM Foundation
The mission of the ABIM Foundation is to advance medical professionalism to improve the health care system. We achieve this by collaborating with physicians and physician leaders, medical trainees, health care delivery systems, payers, policy makers, consumer organizations and patients to foster a shared understanding of professionalism and how they can adopt the tenets of professionalism in practice. To learn more about the ABIM Foundation, visit www.abimfoundation.org, read the Medical Professionalism Blog, connect with us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Full contest details are available at http://teachingvalue.org/competition.