Connecticut Choosing Wisely Collaborative Summit

Connecticut Choosing Wisely Collaborative (CCWC) hosted an all-day summit entitled Leveraging Choosing Wisely® as a Tool for Achieving Health Equity: “Call to Action.” The summit explored opportunities for using Choosing Wisely® resources as a tool to empower and engage underserved populations facing economic, cultural, racial, literacy or linguistic barriers to receiving safe and effective care.

Throughout the summit, participants heard from speakers sharing case studies, resources and future plans for Choosing Wisely®, and from a panel of experts who discussed the opportunities and obstacles for Choosing Wisely® to support health equity. Tekisha Everette, Executive Director of Health Equity Solutions, served as summit moderator and kept all participants engaged in the day’s sessions. Attendees worked together in breakout groups to prioritize recommendations and create action items for the CCWC to better engage and empower underserved patients. A report outlining insights and recommendations from the summit on how the Choosing Wisely® campaign can contribute to future efforts to achieve health equity will be posted at choosingwiselyct.org by February 1.

The summit featured four speakers who shared their individual experiences, resources, and future plans for implementing Choosing Wisely®: Kelly Rand from the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation, Beccah Rothschild from Consumer Reports, Allie Miraglia from Health Insight Utah, and CT Choosing Wisely Collaborative’s Leadership Council member Laura Morris from the Connecticut Office of the Healthcare Advocate.

“The Collaborative received a grant from the Connecticut Health Foundation that paid the expenses of the summit. But in addition to this, the summit was made possible by the tremendous contributions made by dozens of staff members from organizations who are members of CCWC,” said Nancy Yedlin, Donaghue Vice President and summit organizer. “This commitment to improve our healthcare by reducing low-value tests and procedures has been the driving focus of the collaborative and its members for the past four years. There’s still a lot of work to do, but the energy and dedication to this goal is impressive.”