A poster presentation from Hurley was one of just 19 from the U.S. and Canada included in the Education session of the National Research & Education Conference of the High Value Practice Academic Alliance Oct. 8-9, 2017, in Baltimore, Md.

Emad Abu Sitta MD and Ghassan Bachuwa MD MHSA MS of the Hurley Internal Medicine Residency Training Program coauthored the poster, and Abu Sitta presented it. Bachuwa is program director of the residency program, and Abu Sitta is a faculty member.

The poster, Teaching HVC for Internal Medicine Residents, described a quality improvement project that focused on the educational and operational outcomes of a new curriculum in high-value care (HVC) related to commonly ordered diagnostic tests in the Internal Medicine Residency Training Program.

The new curriculum was needed because the prior educational method included much one-on-one work, which was time-intensive and not conducive to resident schedules.

Major steps in the new HVC curriculum include:

• Assessment: Pre- and post-assessment of resident knowledge related to high-value care and commonly used diagnostic tests.

• Implementation: Residents are divided into six teams, with two residents from each training level. Each team chooses one HVC project and introduces a Choose Wisely Campaign, whereby the team examines a real inpatient case where tests possibly were ordered unnecessarily and develops activities and education around the diagnostic test. First-year residents present the case and analysis of it during a noon conference. Second-year residents discuss available guidelines and scientific literature about the diagnostic test related to the case. Third-year residents on the team, using Hurley’s electronic medical records, develop a QI project to improve provider knowledge about the specific test and measure appropriate test-order rates before and after the educational intervention.

• Dissemination: If findings are valuable, one or more teams may share results via a manuscript to be submitted for publication.

High-value care is commonly defined as “quality of care achieved per unit of cost” (NEJM) or “health care that balances clinical benefit with costs and harms, with the goal of improving patient outcomes” (ACP) or “the best care for the patient with the optimal results for the circumstances, delivered at the right price” (IOM). Source: https://resident360.nejm.org/content_items/1847