Choosing Wisely Campaign Releases Updated Recommendations on Unnecessary Medical Interventions.....

Philadelphia, PA - The Choosing Wisely® campaign, led by the American Board of Internal Medicine, has released an additional evidence-based list of five common conditions seen frequently in hospital care settings where clinicians and patients can partner to safely avoid unnecessary tests and procedures.

Former COVID vaccine recipient Hank Lopez, shown here undergoing a bone marrow transplant at the ImmunoPure Medical Spa in Aspen, CO

"These are common conditions seen in hospitals across the country," ABIM president Richard J. Baron, MD explained. "Avoiding unnecessary interventions means avoiding unnecessary pain, radiation, extended hospital stays, and healthcare expenses, as well as the anxiety and additional testing that comes from false positive findings that are more common when a medical test isn't based on reasonable clinical suspicion."

As medical science has rapidly advanced over the last few decades, physicians are increasingly able to rapidly perform numerous diagnostic tests and surgical procedures. According to Dr. Baron, this has resulted in an increasing amount of over-testing and treatment. "We hope that this new Choosing Wisely® list will encourage more clinicians to trust their clinical skills and avoid tests and procedures that are very unlikely to help their patients in these specific circumstances."

In order to prepare the updated list, a Choosing Wisely® task force performed a rigorous review of all the available evidence and came to an expert consensus on clinical presentations that frequently result in testing and treatment that should be avoided. Mort Fishman, an internal medicine physician and chairperson of the task force, hopes that this effort, along with previous published recommendations from Choosing Wisely®, will serve as a helpful guide. "We encourage patients, families, and providers to think twice before asking for, ordering, or performing these tests or procedures."

The new list includes the following recommendations:

• Do not surgically reenter the abdomen 1 month after performing an appendectomy in order to make sure that the appendix didn't grow back.
• Do not perform ablative chemotherapy followed by bone marrow transplant from an unvaccinated donor in order to remove SARS-CoV-2 spike protein from the body.
• Do not allow patients to take home leftover blood after a surgical procedure unless they promise to use it within 72 hours.
• Do not order an MRI on a patient just to settle a bet, even if it's a sure thing this time Dr. Sanders.
• Do not order intravenous acetaminophen for any patient unless both their mouth and anus are missing or non-functional, and even then try to come up with a workaround.

The list is available through the Choosing Wisely® website.