Alosa Health Publications

A multicomponent intervention including academic detailing improved prescription opioid monitoring compared with electronic decision tools alone in a randomized trial of 4 urban safety-net primary care practices. JAMA Intern Med. Published online July 17, 2017. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2017.2468 Prescription opioid misuse is a leading public health problem and likely contributes to overdoses. The evidence base supporting interventions to …

Pain Physician 2017; 20:S147-S151 • ISSN 1533-3159 In recent years, deaths from accidental overdose due to prescription opioids exceeded deaths from motor vehicle accidents in the United States. Inappropriate prescribing of opioids by physicians may have contributed to this growing epidemic. A variety of approaches have been proposed to address this public health problem, from …

Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners 2016; 28, 574-575 Academic detailing (sometimes called educational outreach) programs have historically been directed at physicians. However, nurse practitioners (NPs), like other clinical providers, must also stay current with the latest evidence in order to provide the highest quality care to their patients in today’s rapidly evolving …

JAMA 2017; 317(4) In 1983, Drs. Avorn and Soumerai published the seminal randomized trial that evaluated the effect of academic detailing on clinical practice. In a recent JAMA Viewpoint, Dr. Avorn describes the rationale that led to that trial’s publication as well as a few of the follow-up studies that have been conducted in a …

JAMA. 2016;316(22)2257-2258 In September 2016, the head of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research approved a new drug (etiplersen) for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, despite an advisory committee who voted 7 to 3 finding no evidence that the drug had clinical efficacy. Drs. Kesselheim and Avorn recently published a Viewpoint in JAMA …

JAMA. 2016;316(8)858-871 High prescription drug prices are increasingly straining the budgets of patients, payors and healthcare systems in the United States. In this JAMA clinical review, Drs. Avorn, Kesselheim and Sarpartwari describe the origins for high drug prices and recommend policy options to help contain these rising costs. They find that per capita prescription drug …

NEJM. 2015;373(10)967-973 The promotion of drugs by manufacturers for uses not previously approved by the FDA (aka off-label use) is controversial because it may lead to more patients being exposed to medicines with an uncertain risk-benefit profile. In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Drs. Avorn, Kesselheim and Sarpartwari describe a …