Low-value Care

What journalists can do about low-value care

Abstract: Low-value care isn't just wasteful -- it causes real harm to patients. But despite growing evidence that certain services aren't beneficial, low-value care is still common. What can journalists do to bridge the gap between evidence and practice?

Publication: Association of Healthcare Journalists

Date Published: August 19, 2021

Author(s): Kerry Dooley Young

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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.