Low-value Care

Pharmacists can help solve our overmedication problem — if we let them

Abstract: Pharmacists have many years of graduate training specifically around medication use and safety, and are perfectly positioned to help older patients and their medical providers manage medications. Yet most patients in America don’t realize their pharmacist has this expertise—and if, by chance, they do ask for their pharmacists for help, patients discover the pharmacist is too busy filling prescriptions to take the time for a longer conversation.

Publication: The Hill

Date Published: January 28, 2020

Author(s): Don Downing and Judith Garber

Publication: The Hill

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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.