Reducing the prescribing of heavily marketed medications: a randomized controlled trial.

ABSTRACT:

Context

Prescription drug costs are a major component of health care expenditures, yet resources to support evidence-based prescribing are not widely available.

Objective

To evaluate the effectiveness of computerized prescribing alerts, with or without physician-led group educational sessions, to reduce the prescribing of heavily marketed hypnotic medications.

Design

Cluster-randomized controlled trial.

Setting

We randomly allocated 14 internal medicine practice sites to receive usual care, computerized prescribing alerts alone, or alerts plus group educational sessions.

Measurements

Proportion of heavily marketed hypnotics prescribed before and after the implementation of computerized alerts and educational sessions.

Main results

The activation o

SUBMITTER: Fortuna RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2710467 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature