An interview with Allan Ramsay, one of the five appointed members of the Green Mountain Care Board, which oversees the development of Vermont’s single-payer health care system.
Believing that unnecessary use of resources is a significant contributor to rising health care costs, the ABIM Foundation launched the Choosing Wisely campaign, in which physicians and patients work together to develop treatment plans that are effective for the patient but are also efficient and promote the sustainable use of limited resources.
Comparative effectiveness research (CER) may become an important factor in Medicare coverage decisions, and the new health care law may make it more easily available to the public to help in medical decision making.
There is a market for direct-to-consumer genetic testing and a need for better consumer information and more regulation of tests and testing laboratories.
Medical stewardship is a way of describing a relatively new obligation to maximize health care resources. A professionwide conversation about its meaning and value is needed.