STOP SUPERBUGS NOW

Why you shouldn't ask your doctor for antibiotics
Consumer Reports joins with doctors and hospitals to stop misuse of the drugs

Published: June 18, 2015 12:30 PM

Did you ever ask your doctor for antibiotics to treat a cold? Or the flu? Or what about your child’s painful ear? And did your doctor ever say “Sure! Here you go!” Well, you probably shouldn’t have asked—and your doctor almost certainly should have said no.

Why? Because viruses usually cause those infections, not bacteria—and antibiotics don’t work against viruses. (Have you wondered why you did or didn't receive a prescription for antiobiotics?

And using antibiotics when you don’t need them is not only a waste of money, but can cause side effects including everything from diarrhea to nausea, vomiting, and serious allergic reactions. Even worse, the unnecessary use of antibiotics can breed bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, making the drugs less effective when you really do need them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that up to half of all the antibiotics used in this country are prescribed for the wrong reasons.

To help combat this problem, Consumer Reports is partnering with the ABIM Foundation (with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) to work with seven health care groups across the country to get doctors to cut their inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics for upper respiratory infections–like the common cold and the flu—by at least 20 percent over the next three years. Each of the seven groups includes representatives from organizations such as hospitals, clinics, employers, community groups, and medical societies, like the California chapter of the American College of Physicians.

See Consumer Reports’ guide to the risks posed by antibiotic-resistant infections and join our fight tostop the spread of superbugs. Follow @ConsumerReports on Twitter, and use #SlamSuperBugs.

One of the groups, based in Wisconsin, plans to launch a public awareness campaign with TV, radio, and newspaper ads to let people know about overuse of antibiotics–and what alternatives there are for people with runny nose and other symptoms from the common cold.

Other groups, based in both the East and West coasts, will work with health care providers so that when a doctor and patient discuss antibiotics, the doctor can print out information from Consumer Reports explaining why antibiotics won’t work for their infection – and what to do instead. Printouts of those brochures are available in English and in Spanish.

The groups will also work on reducing other examples of medical overuse that can lead to harm, including MRIs for new low-back pain with no other major symptoms, and benzodiazepines such as Valium and Xanax, drugs frequently used to combat anxiety and insomnia in older adults. Read more about the campaign, called Choosing Wisely.


—Beccah Rotthschild

RWJ: $120k challenge to help understand hospital pricing data

FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES $120,000 CHALLENGE TO HELP CONSUMERS UNDERSTAND AND ACT UPON HOSPITAL PRICING


Applicants will create data visualizations and applications to help people compare what different hospitals charge

Princeton, N.J. – The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has launched a competition among technology developers to improve consumer understanding and use of data that compare hospital prices. Winners of the RWJF Hospital Price Transparency Challenge will share $120,000 in prize money. The competition was announced yesterday at Health Datapalooza IV in Washington, DC.

Last month the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) took the unprecedented step of publishing prices charged by more than 3,000 hospitals for the 100 most common inpatient procedures. The information showed extreme variation in pricing among U.S. hospitals—even those operating in the same communities. Experts say it underscores the urgent need for transparency in the health care system.

The RWJF Hospital Price Transparency Challenge is designed to further disseminate the use of the CMS hospital data. The competition consists of two components—one for creating visualizations of the data and another for developing consumer applications and tools. The visualization challenge requires entrants to create visual representations to help consumers and others better understand, explore and interpret the information. Applicants are encouraged to incorporate other data which can be used in combination with the hospital pricing data. The apps and tools developed should help improve understanding of the hospital pricing information and promote further transparency about prices.

“The challenge asks technology developers to transform these data into intuitive, actionable tools,” said Katherine Hempstead, Ph.D., senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “We hope this will spark discussion and innovation that will help further progress toward increased price transparency in health care.”

Winners of the visualization component of the challenge will be announced at the Health 2.0 Fall Conference in October 2013. The deadline for submissions is August 25. The app and tools component will take place in two phases. The first phase will select five semi-finalists, who will be announced at the Health 2.0 Fall Conference. The deadline for this first phase is August 4. The second phase will select winning entries from among the semi-finalists. Winners will be announced on December 9 at the mHealth Summit. Staff from Health 2.0 and Visualizing.org will manage both challenges.

This is the third competition RWJF has sponsored with Health 2.0 to seek innovative uses of health care data. RWJF launched the ‘Aligning Forces Challenge’ in 2011, seeking applications to make health care quality data more accessible, and announced the winners at the 2012 Health Datapalooza. In 2012, RWJF launched the ‘Games to Generate Data Challenge,’ currently ongoing, which asks developers to use games and gaming concepts to create health care quality data.

Information on the challenge is available at: http://www.health2con.com/devchallenge/rwjf-hospital-price-transparency-challenge/.