Low-value Care

Lown Conferences

Abstract: The Lown Institute organized the first conference in the world dedicated to the problem of overtreatment. The Institute has since convened six national conferences attracting more than 200 attendees annually and featuring world-renowned leaders in health care.

2018 Lown Conference

Breaking the Cycle of High Cost and Low Value: America‘s Next Health System

Washington DC | April 9-10, 2018

Lown 2018 Conference Report (pdf)

The 6th Annual Lown Conference brought together more than 200 health professionals, patients, journalists, and policy experts to light a path toward a radically better, uniquely American health system. The conference themes – High-value care, Affordability, and Bright spots for the next health system – provided a comprehensive framework for discussing issues of achieving right care.

2017 Lown Conference

Beyond the Bottom Line: Defending the Human Connection in Health Care

Boston Marriott Quincy | May 5-7, 2017

Lown 2017 Conference Report (pdf)

Each year an estimated $200 billion to $900 billion is wasted on overuse, with unnecessary tests and treatments harming patients. While hospital administrators too often focus on the bottom line, they ignore what’s right for patients. Join us as we explore and expose the system’s hidden failures and chart a new course forward. Come hear our world-renowned speakers, participate in our skills-building workshops and network with peers. No matter what your background, specialty or experience, you’ll be inspired by this one-of-a-kind conference and will leave with a renewed connection to the humanitarian ideals of American health care.

2016 Lown Conference

& Pre-Conference Research Day

JW Marriott Chicago | April 16-17 (Pre-Conference Research Day, April 15)

Conference Program (pdf)

Hundreds of clinicians, researchers, patient advocates and medical, nursing and public health representatives met at this event addressing right care—the avoidance of both medical overuse and underuse. Conference speakers: Jeffrey Brenner, MD; Gordon Guyatt, MD; John Ioannidis, MD; Joanne Lynn, MD; and Rita Redberg. Attendees participated in workshops focused on transforming clinical culture, adopting RightCare initiatives, novel medical education approaches, high-value care, and faculty development.

2015 Lown Conference

Road to RightCare: Engage, Organize, Transform

Omni San Diego Hotel | March 8-11

Conference program (pdf)

We’re building a movement for change! The third annual Lown Institute conference focused on building a movement to transform healthcare. Key topics included overtreatment and under-treatment that harms patients. These are symptoms of a health care system that is failing to fulfill the social mission of medicine. Clinicians, patient advocates, and community leaders, learned from one another, uncovering the deeply embedded causes and consequences of medical misuse and finding innovative ways to address it.

2013 Lown Conference

From Avoidable Care to Right Care

Boston | December 3-4

Lown 2013 gathered more than 300 clinicians, patient advocates, and civic leaders to deepen our mutual understanding of the cultural, scientific, and ethical issues surrounding the overuse of medical services. The goal of meeting was to provide attendees with priorities for addressing overuse and build a network of collaborators dedicated to bringing right care to their patients and communities.

Featured speakers included Don Berwick, MD, MPH, Former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Harlan Krumholz, MD; Harold H. Hines, Jr. Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale University School of Medicine; Katy Butler, Author of Knocking on Heaven’s Door; Brent C. James, M.D., M.Stat., Executive Director, Institute for Health Care Delivery Research; and Rabbi Richard Address, D.Min, Senior Rabbi, Congregation Mkor Shalom.

2012 Lown Conference

Avoiding Avoidable Care

Cambridge, MA | April 25-26

Organized by the Lown Institute and the New America Foundation, and co-hosted by the Institute of Medicine, the two-day conference aimed to address the problem of overtreatment in health care from several perspectives. The conference’s chief goals were to identify the drivers of avoidable care and develop solutions to overuse, one of the largest sources of risk to patients – and wasted money – in our health care system.

Featured speakers included: Dr. Harvey Fineberg, President of the Institute of Medicine; Dr. Don Berwick, Former Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Dr. Rita Redberg, editor of JAMA Internal Medicine; and Dr. Bernard Lown, Senior Physician (ret.) of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

To eliminate medication overload, serious cultural, educational, and policy changes are needed. This action plan offers recommendations for policymakers, health care institutions, clinicians, and patients across five key categories to reduce harm from multiple medication use. Suggested Citation: Eliminating medication overload: A national action plan. Working Group on Medication Overload. Brookline, MA: The Lown Institute, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46241/LI.YLBW4885

Pharmaceutical marketing is a significant factor in the growing public health crisis of medication overload, which puts millions of older adults at risk of preventable harm and premature death. This issue brief provides recommendations to reduce pharmaceutical industry influence by limiting pharma sales rep visits to clinicians and direct-to-consumer advertising.

This issue brief provides recommendations for clinical practice guidelines and electronic health records that would give clinicians the information they need to appropriately prescribe and deprescribe.