Bridging the Gap With Choosing Wisely Recommendations: What Laboratory Topics Matter Most to Other Medical Specialty Societies?

Abstract

Abstract Introduction This study sought to evaluate the nature and frequency of laboratory recommendations made by medical societies other than ASCP. Methods Review of all 2012 to 2018 ABIM Choosing Wisely (CW) non-ASCP laboratory recommendations and categorization of recommendations per topic area. Results There are 107 total recommendations made by other medical specialties that involve laboratory medicine. The most common recommendations are (1) Transfusion Medicine: to minimize transfusion of PRCs (19 recommendations, 18%); (2) Women’s Health: Pap smear testing, other women’s health testing (18 recommendations, 17%); and (3) General Laboratory: reducing repetitive routine laboratory tests (10 recommendations, 9%). Most (64, 60%) recommendations addressed screening while 29 (27%) focused on treatment and 14 (13%) were related to monitoring disease. Conclusion Almost one-half (44%) of all recommendations fell into three common areas and there were more recommendations related to screening for disease than for treatment or monitoring. For Choosing Wisely to achieve increasing success, increasing efforts are needed to disseminate this information, promote multidisciplinary effective test utilization, and encourage continued laboratory medicine recommendations from all medical stakeholders.