Choose wisely and submit an abstract for National Meeting in May

Australia’s health professionals will gather for the Choosing Wisely Australia National Meeting 2017, in Melbourne on Thursday, 4 May.

The event will showcase the implementation of the Choosing Wisely Australia initiative, launched in April 2015, across the healthcare sector and among healthcare consumers.

Health professionals are being invited to submit abstracts for the meeting. Dr Robyn Lindner, client relations manager at NPS MedicineWise, said, “This event is a great opportunity for Choosing Wisely Australia stakeholders to engage in conversations around best practice.

“We are inviting abstracts and submissions of topics for discussion from our member organisations, health professionals, registrars, and consumer and healthcare leaders which highlight learnings in using the Choosing Wisely approach to improve our healthcare system,” Dr Lindner said.

“In addition, we are inviting medical students and junior doctors to submit their ideas. The opportunity to travel to the event free of charge will be gifted to the best submissions in each category.

“This is an excellent chance for the next generation of medical professionals to engage with the work of Choosing Wisely Australia early in their careers.”

The national meeting will also explore future implementation activities as momentum continues to build around the Choosing Wisely approach — adopted in 17 countries — to improve the safety and quality of healthcare in Australia.

Facilitated by NPS MedicineWise and led by Australia’s health profession, Choosing Wisely aims to eliminate unnecessary, even potentially harmful, tests, treatments and procedures using the latest evidence-based recommendations from Australia’s specialist medical colleges, societies and associations.

Abstracts should provide examples of:

• Clinician engagement: including medical education, guideline development and health service implementation.
• Consumer and patient engagement.
• Systems change that is supporting Choosing Wisely Australia.
• Influence of Choosing Wisely Australia on policy.
• Measuring the impact of Choosing Wisely.

Submissions should be a maximum of 250 words and are due Friday, 17 March 2017. Selected abstracts will become oral presentations or posters at the national meeting.

Abstracts can be submitted via the Choosing Wisely Australia website.