Low-value Care

Prescription Checkup – it could save your life

Abstract: Have you had a prescription checkup lately? If you are a senior or if you take two or more medicines, a review of the medicines you take should be a standard part of your care. As your health changes, for better and for worse, the medicines you need to stay healthy will change too.

Publication: MedShadow

Date Published: January 26, 2020

Author(s): Suzanne B. Robotti

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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.