James Froehlich, M.D., helped craft a list of five things to question about vascular medicine.

Choosing Wisely

U-M cardiologist helps craft national vascular campaign

issue 18 | spring/summer 2013

Recognizing that patients sometimes ask for tests and treatments that are not necessarily in their best interest, and that physicians often struggle with decisions about prescribing tests and procedures as a way of covering all possible bases, leading medical specialty societies have written lists of tests and procedures to question. These lists, under the umbrella of the Choosing Wisely campaign, are meant to spark conversations between patients and doctors about what care is really necessary.

U-M cardiologist and president-elect of the Society for Vascular Medicine James Froehlich, M.D., helped craft the list of five things to question about vascular medicine.

At the top of the list: avoiding pre-operative stress testing for patients undergoing low-risk surgery and skipping clotting disorder lab tests for patients who suffer a first episode of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) when there's already a clear cause.

"Lab tests to look for a clotting disorder will not alter treatment of a venous blood clot, even if an abnormality is found," says Froehlich. "DVT is a common disorder, and recent discoveries of clotting abnormalities have led to increased testing without proven benefit."