Beneficiary-Aligned Care Reduces Unwanted Medications, Tests for Older Adults

A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found a new healthcare strategy focusing decision-making on older adults' health goals and care preferences can reduce undesirable and unhelpful treatment, reports YaleNews . Yale University researchers and collaborators at New York University and Baylor College of Medicine developed an approach defining both older adults' health priorities in terms of specific goals — like improving fatigue to be able to garden and walk one-half mile daily — and the care they are willing and able to accept to realize these goals. Yale's Mary Tinetti said priorities-driven care is valuable because seniors with multiple ailments vary in their health outcome goals and the care they are able and willing to do. The investigators observed the approach's impact on specific treatment outcomes, including health decision-making, perceived burden of treatments, medications, self-care tasks, diagnostic tests, referrals, and procedures. Individuals who received this healthcare scheme perceived their healthcare to be less burdensome, and were more likely to have stopped certain medications, and less likely to have diagnostic tests and tasks related to their healthcare than those who received typical care. "In this population, with multiple different conditions and health outcomes that matter to them, one of the most effective approaches to optimizing care is to align their care with outcomes that matter to them," Tinetti said.