Low-value Care

FDA can’t rely on just trusting test makers when the stakes are life and death

Abstract: Producers looking to meet “unprecedented” demand were told they could sell tests as long as they validated them internally and filed for FDA emergency use authorization within 15 days. Shortly after came complaints of scams and unreliable tests.

Publication: Modern Healthcare

Date Published: May 28, 2020

Author(s): Aurora Aguilar

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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.