Choosing Wisely® Champion Awards

Priya Mendiratta, MD, MPH, AGSF, CMD 

Dr. Priya Mendiratta, MD, MPH, AGSF, CMD is the recipient of the 2026 Choosing Wisely Champion Award. 

Dr. Priya Mendiratta has advanced Choosing Wisely in clinical practice through her longstanding commitment to deprescribing, fall prevention, and high-value geriatric care across outpatient, inpatient, and long-term care settings. She has played a major role in the development and dissemination of society recommendations and consistently educates clinicians through recurring grand rounds, faculty development sessions, and interprofessional teaching and in long term care. 

As Vice Chair of Education and Program Director at UAMS, she has embedded Choosing Wisely recommendations throughout the curricula for fellows, residents, medical students, advanced practice providers, and multiple health-care teams. Dr. Mendiratta has conducted direct measurement of Choosing Wisely recommendations through multiple quality improvement initiatives, including polypharmacy reduction work, the implementation of STEADI within the electronic health record and clinical practice, and structured long-term care medication reviews. She has demonstrated strong leadership of Choosing Wisely efforts across nursing homes, outpatient clinics, and inpatient geriatrics services, and her recent quality improvement project with geriatrics fellows, submitted as an abstract to the American Geriatrics Society, evaluates the education application of these measures across varied clinical settings. Her national engagement with the American Geriatrics Society, AMDA, and ADGAP extends her impact through presentations, dissemination of clinical guidelines, and mentorship of emerging clinicians.

 

Past Recipients of the Choosing Wisely® Champion Award

2026      Priya Mendiratta, MD, MPH, AGSF, CMD 
2025      Omar Amir, MD, MS
2024      Paras Goel, PT, DPT, MEd, MBA, GCS
2023      Lee A. Lindquist, MD MPH MBA
2021      No Awardee
2020      Thomas Finucane, MD
2019      Rebecca Dobert
2018      Alina Sibley, APRN, BC
2017      Eric Anthony Lee, MD
2016      Heidi-Ann Courtney, PA-C
                  Ariel Green, MD, MPH

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