AcademyHealth and ABIM Foundation Continue Partnership to Expand Research Community Committed to Reducing Low-Value Care

Washington, D.C., September 12, 2017 - AcademyHealth and the ABIM Foundation are expanding conversations about health care value through the continuation of the Research Community on Low-Value Care.

Shared success - AcademyHealth and the ABIM Foundation have been actively working together to advance low-value care research since 2014, building on the Foundation's Choosing Wisely® campaign. The Research Community on Low-Value Care, which launched in April 2016, now includes more than 160 members who interact regularly through various virtual and in-person forums to explore future research and interventions to reduce overuse in health care.

The Research Community on Low-Value Care has become a vehicle for researchers, clinicians, health system leaders and payers to assess research needs in measurement, clinical interventions, patient engagement and more to reduce overuse. The new phase of the partnership between AcademyHealth and the ABIM Foundation builds upon this initial focus while bringing in new voices to the community and providing more varied mechanisms for members to interact with each other.

"Advancing research to reduce low-value care is paramount to fostering strong and high-quality health care systems in the United States and abroad," said Lisa Simpson, MB, BCh, MPH, FAAP, President and CEO of AcademyHealth. "We are excited to continue our work with the ABIM Foundation and the hundreds of community members dedicated to tackling this challenging aspect of our health care system."

Current goals - Through June 2018, AcademyHealth and the ABIM Foundation plan to form at least two thematic groups within the research community to develop collaborative papers about topics such as advancing research methods or ways to design, implement and evaluate system level interventions to reduce low-value care.

Additionally, the organizations plan to enlarge and diversify the community by including more young professionals and community practitioners. They will also expand efforts to crowdsource new ideas and establish a forum and peer-mentoring program to discuss and overcome shared challenges.

"It has been exciting to watch the Research Community on Low-Value Care grow and evolve in the last year, and we invite more people to join our conversations about how to ensure patients receive evidence-based, high-value care," said Richard J. Baron, MD, President and CEO of the ABIM Foundation. "This is just the beginning of our work to understand what drives low-value care and develop interventions informed by patients and physicians to promote appropriate care."

To join the Research Community on Low-Value Care, please contact: RC-LVC@academyhealth.org

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About AcademyHealth
AcademyHealth is a leading national organization serving the fields of health services and policy research and the professionals who produce and use this important work. Together with our members, we offer programs and services that support the development and use of rigorous, relevant and timely evidence to increase the quality, accessibility, and value of health care, to reduce disparities, and to improve health. A trusted broker of information, AcademyHealth brings stakeholders together to address the current and future needs of an evolving health system, inform health policy, and translate evidence into action. Learn more at www.academyhealth.org and follow us on Twitter @AcademyHealth.

About the ABIM Foundation
The ABIM Foundation advances professionalism as a force to improve quality and cultivate an environment that fosters excellent patient care. 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, connect with us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

AcademyHealth Media Contact:
Lauren Adams
lauren.adams@academyhealth.org