REGISTER: How unnecessary stents harm patients and waste billions of dollars
How often are these procedures happening, and where? How much are we wasting on these low-value services? And what can we do to prevent unnecessary care? More
How AI-powered cancer screening could impact overuse
AI-supported cancer screenings have the potential to reduce false positives ...but they could also exacerbate overdiagnosis. More
Private equity in cardiology raises overuse concerns
As private equity’s infiltration into cardiology expands, what does this mean for the cost and quality of care? More
Does cancer screening help us live longer?
Cancer screenings save lives, right? It's actually more complicated than that... More
Defining “better”: A look at the new Alzheimer’s drugs
Unlike its predecessor drug aducanumab, lecanemab actually showed a statistically significant difference in slowing cognitive decline in its clinical trial. But can the drug improve patients’ quality of life? More
PODCAST: Dr. Vikas Saini on why more healthcare isn’t always better
On the podcast "Turn on the Lights," hosted by Kedar Mate and Don Berwick of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Lown Institute president Vikas Saini explains how overuse takes hold in medicine and how patients can protect themselves from the harms of unnecessary care. More
Dallas’ Most Socially Responsible Hospital
The Lown Hospital Index for Social Responsibility analyzed facility's outcomes, value of care, and health equity. More
2023 Hospital Social Responsibility: Event Recap
Over 3,600 hospitals were evaluated across the nation. Fifty-four earned A’s across the three main categories of equity, value, and outcomes, earning them Honor Roll status. To have a socially responsible healthcare system, we need more hospitals performing better on metrics like pay equity, racial inclusivity, and community investment. So how do we accomplish this goal? More
America’s most socially responsible hospitals, 2023
Which hospitals make the grade this year, and how can we improve hospital social responsibility across the board? Join Lown Institute leaders and health policy experts on July 18th as we reveal America’s most socially responsible hospitals and discuss how to build a system where all hospitals can reach their health equity goals. More
Why more mammograms aren’t the solution to breast cancer
A recent analysis by the Lown Institute, a nonprofit health care think tank, highlighted some key USPSTF figures that show the limits of mammograms in a helpful way. The analysis imagines a world without screening mammograms, in which women seek evaluation for breast cancer only when they notice a breast lump or other concerning symptoms. According to the USPSTF’s models, about 28 out of every 1,000 women in this world would die from breast cancer at some point in their lives.
Earlier screening for breast cancer: Benefits and harms
The USPSTF just lowered the recommended screening age for breast cancer from 50 to 40. What were the reasons for this change and what are the potential harms and benefits? More
Balancing prevention and overdiagnosis in skin cancer screening
A recent editorial published in JAMA Dermatology discussed the balance between prevention and overdiagnosis of skin cancer. This comes in response to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluding for the fourth time in a row that visual skin cancer screening has insufficient evidence to support its population-wide benefit. How do we know when we’ve crossed from prevention to overuse, and is there anything we can do to keep the balance? More
Too many people take too many pills
“Polypharmacy”, as doctors call it, imposes a big drag on health. A recent study at a hospital in Liverpool found that nearly one in five hospital admissions was caused by adverse reactions to drugs. The Lown Institute, an American think-tank, reckons that, between 2020 and 2030, medication overload in America could cause more than 150,000 premature deaths and 4.5m hospital admissions. More
When it comes to prescription drugs, are we getting what we pay for?
Two recent analyses of expensive medications indicate that many drugs are being priced above their actual clinical benefit. More
Too Many Ills! Too Many Pills!
The Lown Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, argues in its 2019 report, Medication Overload: America’s Other Drug Problem, that Americans are experiencing an epidemic of medication that is particularly harmful to older adults. According to the report, more than 40% of older adults take five or more prescription medicines daily, and 20% take ten drugs or more. More
Why are screening colonoscopy recommendations different across countries?
Lown Institute experts explore why routine colonoscopy is recommended in the US but not in other countries. More
New FDA guidelines on breast density notifications and implications for overuse
The FDA just updated guidelines to require mammography facilities to notify patients about their breast density. How will this impact overdiagnosis and overtreatment? More
The Growing Problem of Medication Overload
As a consequence, older Americans are particularly susceptible to polypharmacy. "Multiple medications can be beneficial for some patients," says Judith Garber, a senior policy analyst at the Lown Institute. Nevertheless, research shows that each additional medication raises a person's risk of suffering an adverse drug event by 7 to 10%. More
Penn Medicine is going all in on proton therapy, a costly treatment that is unproven for most common cancers
The explosive growth worries Vikas Saini, a cardiologist and president of the Lown Institute, a think tank that examines quality, cost, and equity across health care. He said doctors are prescribing proton therapy in a gray area — they think it may be better for a patient than the cheaper alternative, but there’s no hard proof.
“Everybody knows the game: You get an approval, and you go out on the market, then you expand the indications,” Saini said. “It’s called indication creep, or scope creep.”
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Hospitals criticized for ‘low-value’ procedures
The Lown Institute of Needham has long argued that hospitals perform way too many procedures it has identified as being low-value, meaning they offer little to no clinical benefit to patients and, in many cases, are more likely to harm them than help them. More