Atlanta, Georgia – In a surprise announcement that has stunned medical professionals across the country, the Centers for Disease Control has announced that BMI will no longer be reported in a numerical format, and instead will be reported as either Pass or Fail.
“The average patient record in the EMR has over 70 pieces of numerical data. The result of this is that modern physicians often treat the numbers and not the patient.” Says Andrew Thornberg MD, Director of the CDC, “By eliminating one of these pieces of numerical data we hope to encourage physicians to view their patients as more than just numbers”.
For decades BMI has been criticized as confusing, imprecise and ultimately lacking in correlation to human health. While this change does not entirely eliminate the use of BMI, it is seen by many as a step in the right direction. “[In the past] when I told patients their BMI they never understood if their number was good, or what it meant for their health. This new reporting system is much clearer and allows us to stay away from language that is confusing for patients.” says Ryan LaSalle MD, a family medicine physician in Othello, Washington.
Not everyone is happy with this change. “Yes, BMI was often hard to explain to patients,” said Christina White MD, an internist from Portland, Maine “But I fear that the new pass/fail dichotomy will fail to motivate patients that are making progress towards a healthy BMI. In the past I could encourage patients by saying, for example, that since their last visit they had gone from a BMI of 27.3 to 26.1 and are only 1.1 away from a healthy BMI. Now I will only be able to say that, despite their lifestyle changes, they are still failing.”
Dr. White is not the only physician to criticize this change. Hours after the CDC announced this decision, the American College of Primary Care Physicians (ACPCP) made a statement criticizing the proposed change. The statement began “While the ACPCP agrees that numerical BMI is not a perfect measurement and must be changed, we believe that a Pass/Fail system is lacks the specificity needed to be a sufficient replacement.”
In response to this criticism the CDC is reportedly considering the implementation of an updated Pass/Fail/Honors reporting system.
