Choosing Wisely

Dr Lynn McBain and Dr Richard Medlicott talk about the Choosing Wisely campaign in New Zealand. Lynn is an Associate Professor and Head of Department of Primary Health Care & General Practice at the University of Otago. She also is a partner at Brooklyn Medical Centre. Dr Richard Medlicott is the Medical Director at the RNZCGP. He is a GP from Island Bay in Wellington with a keen interest in health IT, health governance and extreme sports.

Topics

What is the Choosing Wisely campaign?
What’s the background to the Choosing Wisely campaign?
Who is involved in the campaign?
How important is this to primary care practitioners?
How can this be integrated into our day to day practice?
Choosing Wisely in action (example guidelines)
What to do when our NZ guidelines differ
How does this campaign empower our patients?

Take home messages

Choosing wisely is a global initiative of which NZ is included.
Aims to promote conversations between health professionals and patients to make wise decisions about treatment options and thus leading to better patient options.
They are guidelines that need to be taken in context of the patient sitting on front of you and their individual clinical situation.
The consumer section empowers patients to ask appropriate questions.