The Greater Detroit Area Health Council [GDAHC] announces that it was chosen by the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation (ABIM) to lead one of seven initiatives that will focus on reducing the use of tests and treatments that national medical specialty societies participating in Choosing Wisely have said are overused.

The grant program, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will bring together health care organizations from across the country that have built strong multi-stakeholder alliances to focus on implementation of at least three Choosing Wisely recommendations. This includes reducing the use of antibiotics for viral infections by at least 20 percent during a nearly three-year period at participating health systems, hospitals and medical groups in the collaborative's region.

"The new Choosing Wisely grantees are undertaking a systematic effort to make a measurable difference on some of the most pervasive examples of waste or overuse in our nation's health care system," said Richard Baron, MD, president and CEO of the ABIM Foundation. "The diverse regional health care coalitions selected for these grants all include active clinician participation and leadership, continuing the campaign's emphasis on working with the health care community to put the Choosing Wisely recommendations into practice."

In its Choosing Wisely initiative, GDAHC will collaborate with core partners Detroit Medical Center Physician Hospital Organization (DMC PHO), Henry Ford Physician Network and the Michigan State Medical Society, along with supporting partners Blue Care Network, Health Alliance Plan (HAP), Michigan Health and Hospital Association, and the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust to reduce unnecessary care in southeast Michigan. GDAHC and its partners will focus on decreasing the use of antibiotics for viral infections among adults, diagnostic testing for low back pain, and screening for Vitamin D deficiencies.

"The purpose behind Choosing Wisely and ABIM's goal to align with health collaboratives to reduce the overuse of unnecessary health care services is a direct correlation to GDAHC's reinvigorated mission," said Kate Kohn-Parrott, president and CEO of GDAHC. "Ultimately our goal -- as GDAHC and a community -- is to improve the quality of health care and reduce the cost, which equates to eliminating unnecessary care. We are thrilled to be chosen as one of seven collaboratives and honored to have several partners who are committed to reaching and exceeding the outcomes."

GDAHC has supported the Choosing Wisely campaign in the past by training volunteers to deliver presentations to health care consumers about the questions to ask physicians about their care. In February, GDAHC launched a microsite with resources available to providers, consumers, health plans and employers created by Consumer Reports and ABIM.

The seven Choosing Wisely initiatives will each receive a grant of $315,000. In addition to GDAHC, the collaboratives include the Integrated Healthcare Association in California, Maine Quality Counts, North Carolina Healthcare Quality Alliance, the UCLA Department of Medicine, the Washington Health Alliance, and the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality.

Visit GDAHC.org to learn more about Choosing Wisely and other initiatives led by the health collaborative.