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American Geriatrics Society Releases 2012 Beers Criteria -- Resources Available
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Colleagues,
In February, the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) released the first update in nine years to the Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults** with great fanfare.
The Beers Criteria (aka Beers List) is a list of medications to assist practitioners, researchers and policy makers with evaluating potentially inappropriate medications in older adults. It discusses high-risk medications, drug-disease interactions, as well as doses that should not be exceeded.
The most recent version of the list published in February, 2012 was derived based on a literature search, voting by experts and an expert panel discussion. 53 drugs made the list and were categorized as follows:
- never appropriate
- potentially inappropriate, depending on other diseases/conditions
- use with caution drugs - safety and effectiveness data are still emerging
Some believe that the Beers List has done more in the past decade to improve the awareness of and the clinical outcomes for older adults with polypharmacy and for the most vulnerable older adults at risk of adverse drug events than any other tool. (Source: Fick, D. and Semla, T.
2012 American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria: New Year, New Criteria, New Perspective. J Am Geriatr Soc, 2012.) Several terrific links to free AGS-sponsored resources including the 2012 Updated Beers Criteria** is below:
Neil Beresin National Program Manager COLLAGE, The Art & Science of Healthy Aging® phone: 610.335.1283 e-mail: info@collageaging.org website: collageaging.org blog: blog-collageaging.org
**These criteria have some limitations. First, even though older adults are the largest consumers of medication, they are often underrepresented in drug trials. Thus, using an evidence-based approach may underestimate some drug-related problems or lead to a weaker evidence grading. The intent of the updated 2012 AGS Beers Criteria, as an educational tool and quality measure, is to improve the care of older adults by reducing their exposure to potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs). Second, it does not address other types of potential PIMs that are not unique to aging (e.g., dosing of primarily renally cleared meds, drug-drug interactions, therapeutic duplication). Third, it does not comprehensively address the needs of individuals receiving palliative and hospice care, in whom symptom control is often more important than avoiding the use of PIMs. Finally, the search strategies used might have missed some studies published in languages other than English and studies available in unpublished technical reports, white papers, or other "gray literature" sources. (Source: American Geriatrics Society Updated Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults. J Am Geriatr Soc, 2012; page 13.)
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Webinar Alert
An Introduction to COLLAGE, 2012
Wed., July 18, 2-3 pm, ET
Click on the webinar title above to register
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 | Excerpts from COLLAGE Healthy Aging Conversations (15:09)
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"Our acute care statistics speak for themselves: since utilizing COLLAGE, hospitalizations dropped across two years from 173 to 137; pain as a reason for hospital admission dropped from 11 to 4. This is very significant."
-- Karri Sears, Director of Wellness Alexian Village of Milwaukee, WI
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"COLLAGE is a gigantic program for us. It gave me a chance to analyze what has happened in my life, what is going on today and will continue to give me hope for the future. COLLAGE gave me an opportunity to rethink my life. I feel lucky -- life isn't easy but because I'm here there are opportunities to positively share and plan for the future."
-- Resident, Kendal at Ithaca
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Robyn Stone, Executive Director, Institute for the Future of Aging Services (IFAS) talks about COLLAGE (2:17)
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"COLLAGE focuses on an evidence-base, collecting good information, using good data to make better decisions, and gathering data and sharing data across organizations so that people really understand where they are improving and where they still need to do the work. There is no way to get to quality without engaging in the kind of work that COLLAGE allows organizations to do."-- Robyn Stone
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