Medication Safety for Older Adults

Our research on medication safety blends with advocacy as we partner with members of the community, caregivers, medical practitioners and others to promote deprescribing and the safety of older adults.

Medications sometimes do more harm than good, especially for older adults. Alice Brennan was an independent, energetic older adult in our community who died due to unsafe prescribing. Her providers failed to recognize that many of her symptoms (such as confusion and falls) were actually medication side effects and added more medications instead of deprescribing the offending ones. Sadly, this is a common occurrence. To save other older adults from medication harm, researchers at PCRI teamed up with an interdisciplinary roster of staff and faculty across UB and partnered with Alice’s daughter to form Team Alice.

Team Alice conducts and disseminates interdisciplinary research aimed at protecting older adults from harm due to medications across the continuum of care. This includes:

  • Patient-driven deprescribing: partnering with patients and their caregivers to empower them with knowledge, skills and tools to promote self-advocacy
  • System-driven deprescribing: developing effective team-based models of practice
  • System transformation: working with practitioners, health care organizations, Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), and health plans to ensure safe use of medications across the health care system

To accomplish its mission, Team Alice formed two community partnerships with which it designs and conducts research and advocacy:

  • Elder Voices: a community stakeholder group of older adults and caregivers who create educational interventions and spearhead patient-led deprescribing initiatives
  • Western New York Deprescribing Partnership: a community group including physicians, pharmacists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, health plan representatives, senior service organizations and patient advocates with interest in medication safety and deprescribing

Current Research Projects

  • Advancing Geriatrics Infrastructure & Network Growth (AGING) Initiative
    9/27/23
    Using novel analytic methods with systemwide Health Information Exchange (HIE) data, we will explore new risk factors relevant to Multiple Chronic Conditions (MCCs) in older adults. This pilot study is also using a participatory patient-care partner approach to gain insight on MCC patient experiences and ensure the relevance of risk factors developed for future patient-provider interactions.  
  • Community-Based Participatory Research for Reducing Medication Harm Among Retirees
    9/27/23
    This project works to translate known medication safety evidence into practice for frail elders through system-based interventions that address fragmentation through a variety of innovative strategies for providers to initiate deprescribing of inappropriate medications. Such a focus on patient- or caregiver-initiated deprescribing conversations with their doctors has never before been funded or attempted in the United States.
  • Patient-Driven Medication Safety Learning Laboratory in Care Transitions
    7/22/24
    This AHRQ-funded initiative aims to better understand barriers and facilitators to preventing, identifying, and resolving medication safety problems in transitions across levels of care within the healthcare system. We will utilize a combination of patient and caregiver surveys and interviews, workflow analyses, and insights from clinical data. Following data collection and synthesis, we will work with patients, providers, and staff from across the Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) and with the Community Advisory Board to design prototype interventions to overcome medication safety problems for older adults during transitions of care.

Interdisciplinary Faculty

Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

Ranjit Singh, MB BChir, MBA

Associate Professor; Vice Chair for Research; Director of the Primary Care Research Institute

Department of Family Medicine

77 Goodell St., Ste. 220, Buffalo 14203

Phone: (716) 816-7275

Email: rs10@buffalo.edu

Andrew D. Baumgartner, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor

Department of Family Medicine

77 Goodell St., Ste. 220, Buffalo 14203

Phone: (716) 835-9800

Email: adbaumga@buffalo.edu

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Collin Clark, PharmD, BCPS, BCGP

Clinical Assistant Professor

Department of Pharmacy Practice

312 Pharmacy Building, Buffalo 14214

Phone: (716) 645-4762

Email: collincl@buffalo.edu

Christopher Daly, PharmD, MBA, BCACP

Clinical Assistant Professor

Department of Pharmacy Practice

204 Pharmacy Building, Buffalo 14214

Phone: (716) 645-4793

Email: cjdaly@buffalo.edu

David Jacobs, PharmD, PhD

Assistant Professor

Department of Pharmacy Practice

316 Pharmacy Building, Buffalo 14214

Phone: (716) 829-2134

Email: dmjacobs@buffalo.edu

Scott V. Monte, PharmD

Clinical Assistant Professor

Department of Pharmacy Practice

213 Pharmacy Building, Buffalo 14214

Phone: (716) 713-0368

Email: svmonte@buffalo.edu

Robert Wahler, PharmD

Clinical Associate Professor

Department of Pharmacy Practice

211 Pharmacy Building, Buffalo 14214

Phone: (716) 645-4777

Email: rgwahler@buffalo.edu

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Huei-Yen “Winnie” Chen, PhD

Assistant Professor

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering

318 Bell Hall, Buffalo 14260

Phone: (716) 645-4705

Email: winchen@buffalo.edu

Kenneth Joseph, PhD

Assistant Professor

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

335 Davis Hall, Buffalo 14260

Phone: (716) 645-0682

Email: kjoseph@buffalo.edu

School of Nursing

Sharon Hewner, PhD, RN, FAAN

Associate Professor

School of Nursing

311 Wende Hall, Buffalo 14214

Phone: (716) 829-2092

Email: hewner@buffalo.edu