The Ethics of Choosing Wisely and Practicing Efficiently

This month the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation (ABIM) joined with nine medical specialty societies, each of which released a list of five tests, procedures or treatments whose use and clinical value were not supported by evidence, as determined by experts from the specialty.

This is a major step for the US health system. We've been phobic about engaging seriously with waste. In the 1990s we asked insurers to do the job, but physicians and patients pushed back against "managed care," and insurers backed off. Now we physicians ourselves are stepping forward. It's about time!

Among the 45 recommendations, the ones that are "absolute" should be relatively easy to discuss with patients, as in this example from cardiology:

Don’t obtain screening exercise electrocardiogram testing in individuals who are asymptomatic and at low risk for coronary heart disease. In asymptomatic individuals at low risk for coronary heart disease (10-year risk <10%) screening for coronary heart disease with exercise electrocardiography does not improve patient outcomes.

There's no waffling here - this form of screening "does not improve patient outcomes." If I were a cardiologist I would say that asking Medicare, Medicaid, or a private insurer to pay for the screening would be unethical. If it is known not to improve outcomes there's no justification for using shared health care funds to pay for it. And I'd feel fully comfortable looking my patient in the eye and explaining why I would not order the test.

The same is true for this "absolute" recommendation:

Don’t obtain imaging studies in patients with non-specific low back pain.
In patients with back pain that cannot be attributed to a specific disease or spinal abnormality following a history and physical examination (e.g., non-specific low back pain), imaging with plain radiography, computed tomography (CT) scan, or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) does not improve patient outcomes.

But some of the recommendations are "relative," not "absolute," as in these two examples:

Don’t obtain preoperative chest radiography in the absence of a clinical suspicion for intrathoracic pathology.
In the absence of cardiopulmonary symptoms, preoperative chest radiography rarely provides any meaningful changes in management or improved patient outcomes.

Don’t use cancer-directed therapy for solid tumor patients with the following characteristics: (a) low performance status (3 or 4), no benefit from prior evidence-based interventions, not (b) eligible for a clinical trial, and no strong evidence supporting the clinical value of further anticancer treatment.
Studies show that cancer directed treatments are likely to be ineffective for solid tumor patients who meet the above stated criteria...

Suppose a patient with a solid tumor that meets the specified criteria protested - "I understand that further chemotherapy is unlikely to be effective, but I want to try anything with the slightest chance of helping me. Your medical society is recommending rationing! That's not fair!"

The oncologist won't have an easy time responding. The patient is right - the medical society has made a rationing recommendation. In my view, this is a long overdo step forward out of the lala land of make believe infinite resources. But in our political culture, the word "rationing" is avoided as assiduously as the "f" word. Our reflex is to deny that rationing is occurring, not to discuss the rationale for why and how it is being done.

And with regard to the recommendation against a routine chest X-ray, it's only a matter of time until the evening news features a patient whose X-ray picked up an undiagnosed cancer, leading to cancellation of the scheduled surgery and removal of the cancer. The patient will tell us "the X-ray saved my life - are we going to let a rationing decision kill people just to save money?"

I hope the ABIM and the specialty societies are brave enough not to run for cover when the inevitable backlash occurs. They've taken a courageous step on behalf of the health of patients who could be harmed by interventions that wise clinical practice should avoid. And they've pushed us towards open engagement with the question of when interventions that "rarely" produce any benefit should be paid for our of shared insurance funds. We should thank the ABIM and the specialty societies for their contribution to healthier patients and a healthier society!

(Information about the ABIM's "Choosing Wisely" program can be found here.)