Five Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Antibiotics (large posters, for children)

Campaign Series: Choosing Wisely Medical Category: Drugs Article Type: Cards and Posters Language: Plain English, Spanish Format: PDF Most recent update: 02/26/2014 Use these five questions to talk to your doctor about when you need antibiotics -- and when you don’t. Antibiotics can help prevent or treat some infections. But if you use them for the wrong reason, they may cause…

ByChristine AustinJune 29, 20230Comments

Uncategorized

Our new video: Talking points

Want to quiz your doctor about that test, diagnosis or treatment? How can you squeeze your questions into an already rushed appointment? We know it’s not easy. So here’s our newest Choosing Wisely video, Talking With Your Doctor, with tips from doctors themselves on how to get the answers you need. The video features our popular poster, five questions…

ByChristine AustinJune 26, 20230Comments

Uncategorized

How to prevent and treat “overdiagnosis”

Experts from all corners of medicine have converged on Dartmouth College in New Hampshire this week in an effort to come to grips with “overdiagnosis” — a costly and risky trend toward seeing disease where there is none and providing unneeded tests and treatments. The three-day conference is an international partnership among Bond University in Australia, the…

ByChristine AustinJune 26, 20230Comments

Uncategorized

How to keep antibiotics around a little longer

Antibiotics matter. But the way that patients, doctors and the meat industry use them, they are at risk of being rendered useless. That’s why Consumer Reports has launched an in-depth, publicly available hub on antibiotics, on this site. We urge you to share these materials with your friends and family and think about them the next time…

ByChristine AustinJune 26, 20230Comments

Uncategorized

Choosing Wisely is nearly 2. What have we done?

Consumer Reports, the world’s largest independent product-testing organization, is proud to be leading the consumer communication efforts of the Choosing Wisely campaign. That campaign kicked off in April, 2012, and continues to grow in influence. To amplify key campaign messages, Consumer Reports has collaborated with almost 100 Choosing Wisely partners, grantees, and medical specialty societies to…

ByChristine AustinJune 26, 20230Comments

Uncategorized

Choosing Wisely, still growing, turns 4

Dr. Eric Barbanel, an internist in Middletown, N.Y., is determined to have his patients and their families understand that much of the care they’re used to receiving — including care that he used to deliver himself — turns out to be needless. Many doctors still offer, and many patients expect, unproductive tests and treatments that may be…

ByChristine AustinJune 26, 20230Comments

Uncategorized

I Didn’t Know That Antibiotics Shouldn’t Always be Used to Treat Bronchitis

I have asthma, so over the years, I’ve had a tendency to get bronchitis two to three times per year. Whenever it got bad enough, I was prescribed antibiotics. I recall being told that there was a danger of the bronchitis turning into pneumonia, so I was only too happy to take the antibiotics. In 2015,…

ByChristine AustinJune 26, 20230Comments

Uncategorized

The Employers’ Toolkit Campaign

From Consumer Reports and the Choosing Wisely campaign Click the tabs at left for more information on taking charge of your own healthcare. For more resources for employees, visit Making Healthy Choices. Articles from your employer Caring for Others: Tips to Help You and Your Loved Ones When caring for someone, it’s important to build a relationship with his or…

ByChristine AustinJune 26, 20230Comments

Uncategorized

‘Choosing Wisely’ Guides Our Conversations and Decisions

Primary Care and Internal Medicine, New York Choosing Wisely has a presence in our office, helping to guide our conversations and decisions. When I walk into an exam room and see a patient reading one of the Consumer Reports “5 Questions” posters, it opens the door for an easy conversation about Choosing Wisely and the overall concept…

ByChristine AustinJune 26, 20230Comments

Uncategorized

Choosing Wisely campaign

Family doctors know that many patients get unneeded prescriptions. Obstetricians know that too many babies are delivered by C-section. Radiologists have seen a lot of pointless chest X-rays. Blood tests, EKGs, Pap tests and MRIs all are overused. In fact, when doctors sit down with the medical evidence within their specialties, hundreds of tests and treatments…

ByChristine AustinJune 26, 20230Comments