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On April 4, 2012, American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) together with 9 other leading physician societies launched the Choosing Wisely^® program, which they describe as, “an initiative of the ABIM Foundation to help physicians and patients engage in conversations about the overuse of tests and procedures and support physician efforts to help patients make smart and effective care choices.” By signing on as a member society, each of these physician groups has identified lists of “Five Things Physicians and Patients Should Question.”  These lists are intended to “provide specific, evidence-based recommendations physicians and patients should discuss to help make wise decisions about the most appropriate care based on their individual situation.”

What Choosing Wisely has done, in effect, is provide physicians and patients a list of 45 procedures and tests that they should either avoid or at least question before prescribing (in the case of doctors) or accepting (in the case of patients).  In other words, this is a large (over 357,000) cadre of physicians coming out and saying, “hey, maybe we are doing too many tests and procedures that have no clinical value and cost a lot

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