ACR selects Wisconsin professor as quality champion

Jeffrey P. Kanne, MD, was selected by the American College of Radiology as its “champion” in the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Foundation Choosing Wisely Champions Program. Kanne is a professor and vice chair of quality at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

The move toward value-based care has prompted an obsession with cutting overuse and waste across the U.S. healthcare system—and for good reason. According to a 2012 Journal of the American Medical Association paper, as much as one-third of U.S. healthcare spending is wasted on unnecessary treatments, overpriced drugs and under-utilization of cancer screening and other preventative care.

The Choosing Wisely Champions Program recognizes clinicians who are leading efforts to reduce overuse and waste in medicine, making Kanne a prime candidate. The champions are recognized in publications and at society meetings and speaking engagements.  

He has focused on education and quality throughout his time at UW, collaborating with other clinicians to reduce unnecessary imaging exams, including preoperative chest x-rays in otherwise healthy people.

“If you’ve got a guy who’s undergoing knee surgery for a torn ligament, he gets a chest x-ray,” said Kanne. “There’s no value in it, unless someone has active symptoms. Obviously, if someone’s got pneumonia you might want to postpone the surgery.”

Another exam he eliminated was a daily chest x-ray of ICU patients. Several studies in the past decade have found little value added for expensive daily studies, prompting Kanne and his colleagues to scale back exams to an as-needed basis.

“[When] moving patients around and from room to room, there’s always the risk of spreading germs,” he said. “These are our sickest patients, the less you do with them the better.”

These improvements made their way into ACR appropriateness criteria; Kanne sevres on the ACR Expert Panel on Thoracic Imaging. He subsequently incorporated the new criteria into the clinical decision support systems at UW, further reducing waste.

“Dr. Kanne’s work represents significant contributions to advancing safer health care and stewardship through the Choosing Wisely program,” said Jacqueline A. Bello, MD, FACR, chair of the ACR Commission on Quality and Safety.  “Equally notable is that Dr. Kanne was selected by our patient advocates, emphasizing the importance of high-quality radiologic care that incorporates the needs, wants and values of our patients and communities,” said James V. Rawson, MD, FACR, chair of the ACR Commission on Patient- and Family-Centered Care.