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De-implementing low-value care in endocrinology

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Abstract

Low-value care exposes patients to ineffective, costly, and potentially harmful care. In endocrinology, low-value care practices are common in the care of patients with highly prevalent conditions. There is an urgent need to move past the identification of these practices to an active process of de-implementation. However, clinicians, researchers, and other stakeholders might lack familiarity with the frameworks and processes that can help guide successful de-implementation. To address this gap and support the de-implementation of low-value care, we provide a summary of low-value care practices in endocrinology and a primer on the fundamentals of de-implementation science. Our goal is to increase awareness of low-value care within endocrinology and suggest a path forward for addressing low-value care using principles of de-implementation science.

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Acknowledgements

NSO was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K08CA248972. SM was supported by the Arkansas Biosciences Institute, the major research component of the Arkansas Tobacco Settlement Proceeds Act of 2000, and by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development Service of the VA Office of Research and Development, under Merit review award number 1I21HX003268-01A1. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the United States Government. The authors will like to acknowledge the support of Cynthia Beeler designing and conducting the search strategy for this narrative review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine, University of Florida, 1600 SW Archer Road, Room H2, Gainesville, FL, 32606, USA

    Naykky Singh Ospina

  2. Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, Metabolism and Nutrition, Department of Medicine, Knowledge and Evaluation Research Unit, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA

    Naykky Singh Ospina, Spyridoula Maraka & Juan P. Brito

  3. Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 2004 Mowry Road, Room 2243, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA

    Ramzi G. Salloum

  4. Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 4301 W. Markham St, #587, Little Rock, AR, 72205, USA

    Spyridoula Maraka

  5. Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System, 4300W 7th St, #4E-132, Little Rock, AR, 72205, USA

    Spyridoula Maraka

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  1. Naykky Singh Ospina
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All authors contributed to conceptualizing this personal view. NSO wrote the first draft. All authors edited and revised the manuscript and approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Naykky Singh Ospina.

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Ospina, N.S., Salloum, R.G., Maraka, S. et al. De-implementing low-value care in endocrinology. Endocrine 73, 292–300 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-021-02732-y

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