New U.S. STARS program begins with summit of 50 medical students at Dell Medical School

Philadelphia, November 30, 2017 - Aiming to combat wasteful practices in health care, 50 medical students will come together on December 2, 2017, to take part in the inaugural meeting of the U.S. STARS (Students and Trainees Advocating for Resource Stewardship) program at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.

The STARS initiative seeks to build awareness in the medical education community for the Choosing Wisely campaign, in which 80 medical specialty societies have developed more than 500 recommendations to reduce or avoid low-value care. The initiative is designed to increase students' knowledge and attitudes about evidence-based care and resource stewardship, and to seed local programs at participating medical schools to promote Choosing Wisely.

Throughout the next year, these first-year students - from 25 medical schools across the country - will be working with peers to develop ways to avoid unnecessary medical tests, treatments and procedures that might be harmful to patients and contribute to excessive health care costs.

The ABIM Foundation and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation have provided support for the initiative, which mirrors the successful STARS program started in 2015 by Choosing Wisely Canada.

"We are inspired by the clinicians all across the country and in Canada who are leading Choosing Wisely initiatives to reduce unnecessary care that could harm patients. We want to foster a new generation of doctors who will practice and promote evidence-based care," said Richard J. Baron, MD, president and CEO of the ABIM Foundation. "The STARS program will provide a dynamic community of future leaders with training and resources to improve health care in America."

List of students and schools participating in STARS:

The University of Texas at Austin - Dell Medical School
Zack Timmons
Will Squiers

University of Chicago - Pritzker School of Medicine
Rahul Dadwani
Sarah Follman

Johns Hopkins University - School of Medicine
Larry Lou
David Mampre

University of Colorado - School of Medicine
Claire Koljack
David Gamble

University of Arizona - College of Medicine Tucson
Eugenia Lin
Dilara Onur

University of Minnesota - Medical School
Luke Klugherz
Lauren Rose

Eastern Virginia Medical School
Kevin Parsons
Catherine Smith

Ohio State University - College of Medicine
Mukund Mohan
Victoria Alexander

University of California San Francisco - School of Medicine
Heather Ma
Marissa Silverman

University of California San Diego - School of Medicine
Milan Amin
Shanmukha Srinivas

University of Michigan - Medical School
James Haggerty-Skeans
Katherine Wolf

Mayo Clinic - School of Medicine
Lindsay Riordan
Christopher Mackintosh

UT Health San Antonio - Long School of Medicine
Erin Rainosek
Luke Lehman

Oregon Health & Science University - School of Medicine
Annalise Manley
Emily Lane

Vanderbilt University - School of Medicine
Austin Triana
Sanjana Salwi

New York University - School of Medicine
Garrett Yoon
Kush Fansiwala

University of North Carolina - School of Medicine
Rita Swartzwelder
Sloan Walters

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Christopher Ferrer
Akila Pai

Northwestern University - Feinberg School of Medicine
Kimberly Chow
Alexander Ayala

Boston University - School of Medicine
Faizah Shareef
Reena Bastin

University of Utah - School of Medicine
Ben Berger
Chloe Cross

Texas A&M - College of Medicine
Vivy Phan
Jared Laney

University of Washington - School of Medicine
Cassandra Sunga
Amanda Sekijima

University of South Carolina - School of Medicine Greenville
Connor Brunson
Bryana Baginski

UT Southwestern - Medical School
Cylaina Bird
Natasha Houshmand


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About the 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.

About Choosing Wisely
Choosing Wisely is an initiative of the ABIM Foundation in partnership with Consumer Reports that seeks to advance a national dialogue on avoiding wasteful or unnecessary medical tests, treatments and procedures. To learn more about Choosing Wisely, visit www.choosingwisely.org.