Low-value Care

Is a cancer crisis trailing the pandemic?

Abstract: The way the pandemic has deferred some primary and preventive care is rekindling debate over whether the U.S. is spending too much on diagnostic tests. Lown Institute President Vikas Saini doesn’t think Covid will move the needle on how doctors and patients approach medical care, with demand for tests and services returning once the crisis lifts. “There's been chatter, and people speculating or saying it's a great opportunity because there's all this elective stuff that got stopped [so] when we resume, maybe we should be more thoughtful — yeah, we should," he says. "But what's actually going to happen? I don't see any reason to think it won't go back to business-as-usual."

Publication: Politico

Date Published: February 10, 2021

Author(s): Alexandra S. Levine

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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.