Do No Harm Project

Clinicians at the University of Colorado have pioneered a new initiative called the "Do No Harm Project."  Their goal is to emphasize trainee scholarship that highlights the wisdom of Bernard Lown’s credo: "do as much as possible for the patient and as little as possible to the patient."

The project website explains:

Harms from over-testing, over-diagnosis, and over-treatment are a serious threat to the health of our patients and the long-term solvency of our health care system. Harms of overuse have not traditionally been taught to medical trainees and there are few incentives to pay attention to overuse: performance measures and payment incentives reward doing more, the legal system punishes under-diagnosis, and there is a dominant cultural belief that more care is better.

Basically, the project entails residents submitting vignettes where they have witnessed unnecessary harms from over-testing, over-diagnosis, or preference misdiagnosis. Once per quarter the best vignette is selected for an award.  (HT: GeriPal)