News in brief - March 28, 2011

Hidden recorders will help study physician communications

A five-year, $2.7 million National Institutes of Health grant announced in March will fund a study using hidden audio recorders to capture physician interactions with standardized patients to better understand how doctors' communication styles may vary by patients' age, gender, ethnicity or personality.

Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana, the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and the University of Michigan Medical School will ask physicians involved in the study to consent to having their visits with standardized patients recorded. The visits will be unannounced, and the interactions will be studied to see how they affect clinical decisions such as test-ordering and prescribing.

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Drug reactions send 1.1 million older adults to EDs annually

Nearly 80% of emergency department visits by patients 50 and older involve adverse drug reactions, according to a report released in March by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (www.oas.samhsa.gov/2k11/DAWN027/Ecstasy.cfm).

Almost one-quarter of these visits involved narcotic and non-narcotic pain relievers, more than any other type of drug, the report said. Nearly 62% of the drug-related ED visits occurred among patients 65 and older. In all, adults 50 and older made 1.1 million ED visits related to adverse drug reactions in 2008, researchers found.

Patients can reduce the risk of adverse drug reactions by filling all their prescriptions at one pharmacy, seeking help from family members in managing their medications, and keeping their physicians and other health professionals apprised of all the drugs, vitamins and supplements they are taking, the report said.

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