‘Choosing Wisely’ in Anesthesiology: Top-5 List – Addressing the Gap Between Evidence and Practice

The “Choosing Wisely” campaign is an ongoing initiative by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) to help physicians become better stewards of finite health resources by encouraging conversations between physicians and their patients to ensure the right care is delivered at the right time.¹  Interestingly, patients believe that the world of medicine should be a place where evidence-based findings roll out into practice with ease and finesse. The reality, however, remains that despite the breadth of evidence and knowledge necessitating the practice of validated evidence-based guidelines, the translation of evidence to clinical practice still remains patchy at best. With the current economic climate advocating for improving quality of care, patient satisfaction and outcomes measures while decreasing unnecessary cost, the adherence to evidence-based guidelines that improve these measures will become important for the sustenance of health care facilities in the near future. In 2009, the cost of unnecessary health...