ABIM Foundation Introduces The Medical Professionalism Blog

The ABIM Foundation has launched a new platform to engage physicians, patients and health care leaders in a conversation about medical professionalism. "The Medical Professionalism Blog" will support the ABIM Foundation in their efforts to address the sustainability of the United States health care system and advance promising practices to help reduce cost and improve patient care.

Current cost trends project national health expenditures will increase from 17.4% to 19.6% of the GDP by 2019 . Health care experts and policymakers point to a number of factors contributing to this increase, including misuse or overuse of tests and procedures, lack of coordination in care and underutilization of evidence-based medicine. Patients often receive care that offers little benefit - and sometimes even harms them - at high costs.

"There is agreement that current use of our limited health care resources is unsustainable," said Glenn Hackbarth JD, Chair of the ABIM Foundation Board of Trustees. "The Medical Professionalism Blog will provide a forum for conversation about these issues and focus on advancing specific solutions so that we can reduce cost and improve the quality of care for patients."

Authors will draw on Medical Professionalism in the New Millenium: A Physician Charter as a framework for topics and discussion. Authored by the ABIM Foundation in partnership with the American College of Physicians Foundation and the European Federation of Internal Medicine, the Physician Charter has among its fundamental principles the primacy of patient welfare, patient autonomy and social justice.

The Physician Charter's principle of social justice, which states the "medical profession must promote justice in the health care system, including the fair distribution of health care resources", will inform much of the blog's discussion. The Physician Charter also calls on physicians to meet the needs of individual patients while providing health care that is based on the wise and cost-effective management of finite resources.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, "National Health Care Expenditure Projections 2009-2010", September 2009

The mission of the ABIM Foundation is to advance medical professionalism to improve the health care system. We achieve this by collaborating with physicians and physician leaders, medical trainees, health care delivery systems, payers, policy makers, consumer organizations and patients to foster a shared understanding of professionalism and how they can adopt the tenets of professionalism in practice. To learn more about the ABIM Foundation, visit www.abimfoundation.org , connect with us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.