Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Drug prescribing for seniors is often complex due to multiple chronic diseases for which many drugs are prescribed. In addition, older adults are usually more susceptible to adverse drug reactions. This is particularly true with respect to some drugs for which the risk of adverse effects is generally greater than the potential benefits. We evaluated the efficacy of a computerized system to recognize seniors who are taking drugs at high risk of adverse effects. We assessed an innovative model of care where seniors' pharmacotherapy, as identified by the computerized system, is jointly reviewed by a pharmacist and a physician. We have shown that our approach significantly reduced the use of drugs at high risk of adverse effects in older hospitalized adults.