Thomas R. Radomski, MD, MS

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine

Director of Academic Programs in Clinical Research, Institute for Clinical Research Education

Affiliated Faculty, Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing (CP3)

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

 

Low-value health services are harmful to patients and a major driver of wasteful healthcare spending. Existing low-value health service metrics focus on the overuse of tests and procedures, but not medications. Thus, low-value prescribing has not been systematically studied. There is an urgent need to accurately characterize and reduce low-value prescribing in older adults, as 2 in 5 have been prescribed ≥5 medications (i.e., polypharmacy), resulting in adverse drug events, unnecessary out-of-pocket costs, and hospitalizations. However, there is currently no metric that consolidates and streamlines existing recommendations and incorporates the perspectives of patients, prescribers, and payers to clearly define and systematically measure low-value prescribing. In this presentation, I will describe our approach and present our research findings regarding the multi-phase development of a novel metric to identify and ultimately reduce low-value prescribing in older adults entitled EVOLV-Rx: Evaluating Opportunities to Decrease Low-Value Prescribing.