When Dr. Elizabeth Wolf isn’t caring for patients in our primary care clinics, she can often be found researching and advocating on the topic of reducing overuse in pediatric health care. This means cutting down on medications, x-rays and procedures that are harmful, ineffective and/or not cost-effective.
In addition to the publication we shared last fall addressing concerns about negative health impacts from common and often unnecessary medical interventions, Dr. Wolf has collaborated with researchers from across the country on another study on the important topic.
Published in the journal Pediatrics, the most recent article reviews new opportunities to reduce unnecessary and potentially harmful care delivered to children including thresholds for treating hypoglycemia and anemia. With a specific focus on newborns, Wolf and her colleagues found that in many cases less aggressive treatment did not negatively impact young patients, and in fact prevented them from unneeded interventions.
“This was a great opportunity to collaborate with national experts, the best of the best, on pediatric overuse,” said Dr. Wolf.
The national movement to reduce low-value care has been driven by the realization that kids are particularly vulnerable to the harms of unnecessary medications and radiologic studies and that “less is sometimes more.” Researchers at CHoR are focused on making sure kids get all the care they DO need while reducing the care they DON’T need.
In April, Dr. Wolf will start her tenure as co-chair of the Academic Pediatric Association’s Health Care Value special interest group, with a mission to improve the value of health care in pediatrics through quality improvement and cost efficiency.