Low-value Care

Review Your Medications Regularly

Abstract: Every day, 750 older Americans end up in the hospital because of serious side effects from one or more medications, according to the Lown Institute, a health care think tank. And the chance you will experience a serious side effect from a prescribed medication goes up around 10% with each additional medication you take.

Date Published: August 1, 2024

Author(s): Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Mike Roizen

Publication: NewsMax Health

View This Resource

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.