Bending the Trends

Abstract

To read or post commentaries in response to this article, see it online at http://www.AnnFamMed.org/content/15/4/304.

In This Issue: Trends, Prescribing, Deprescribing

“…In an accompanying editorial, Karen DeSalvo emphasizes the importance of attending to social needs of patients and communities in order to improve care, lower costs, and reverse health disparities. 2 In contrast, and in partial explanation of the trends toward greater prescribing, Wallis and colleagues identify barriers and enablers to deprescribing. Purposively sampled and deeply interviewed primary care clinicians describe "'swimming against the tide' of patient expectations, the medical culture of prescribing, and organizational constraints" including time pressures, fragmentation of care, and poor information flows between multiple prescribers.…”