March 23, 2022
Monica Ott, MD, CMD, an Indiana-based medical director for Optum Complex Care Management, has been named the 2021 Choosing Wisely® Champion by AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. The award honors individual clinicians and teams of clinicians who have gone above and beyond to make significant contributions to advance the ideals of the ABIM Foundation’s Choosing Wisely campaign by working to reduce unnecessary tests, treatments, and procedures in health care.
Dr. Ott addressed AMDA’s Choosing Wisely recommendations #11: “Don’t continue hospital-prescribed PPI in absence of appropriate diagnosis in post-acute and long -term care” and #14: “Don’t routinely continue acetyl cholinesterase inhibitors or NMDA antagonists in patients with advanced dementia.” Dr. Ott created a medication optimization program that addresses a new medication class every 1-2 months and targets higher-risk medications that are typically appropriate for deprescribing but may remain on a patient’s medication list for months or years. The program involves training modules, each with an on-demand video/PowerPoint didactic, a deprescribing algorithm, and a podcast demonstrating how to have the discussion with patients and other providers. She also created protocols to ensure follow-through. To date, Dr. Ott and her team have completed modules on deprescribing, anticholinergic bladder agents, proton pump inhibitors, dementia medications, and oral antihyperglycemics.
Preliminary data suggest a 40-60% deprescribing rate, higher for the bladder agents,” Dr. Ott said. “This program gets to the heart of the Choosing Wisely campaign by focusing on training and encouraging clinicians to evaluate the risks and benefits of all medications, particularly those that have limited benefit later in life. I am grateful for the opportunity to highlight our successes from this program, which both pleased and surprised us. We hope that other long-term care providers will use our algorithms and get similarly positive results.”
Launched in 2012 by the ABIM Foundation, Choosing Wisely is widely recognized across the health care system as a leading effort to reduce overuse in medicine. More than 80 specialty societies, including AMDA, have joined the campaign and published over 600 recommendations regarding overused or unnecessary care.
For more information about Choosing Wisely and the Choosing Wisely Champions awards program, visit www.choosingwisely.org.
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About the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine
AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine is the only medical specialty society representing the community of over 50,000 medical directors, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other practitioners working in the various post-acute and long-term care (PALTC) settings. Dedicated to defining and improving quality, we advance our mission through timely professional development, evidence-based clinical guidance, and tireless advocacy on behalf of members, patients, families, and staff. Visit www.paltc.org for more information.