This 2023 revision of the American Geriatric Society’s Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIMs) in older adults includes major recommendations for the safe use of anticoagulants and for avoiding the initiation of aspirin for primary cardiovascular disease, oral and transdermal estrogens in postmenopausal women, sulfonylureas as first, second or add-on therapy for diabetes, and the use of highly anticholinergic medications. Additional areas that have been updated include how PIMs can exacerbate drug-disease and drug syndromes, important drug-drug interactions, and drugs that require alterations in dosing in renal impairment. Pharmacists should be cognizant of these changes to the AGS Beers Criteria so that they can use this tool to help optimize their older adults’ medication regimens.
SPEAKERS
Donna M. Lisi, PharmD, BSPharm, BCACP, BCGP, BCMTMS, BCPS, BCPP is an Independent Consultant Clinical Pharmacist. Dr. Lisi completed her BSPharm and PharmD degrees from St. John’s University in New York and a post-doctoral fellowship in Geriatric Pharmacy at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. She holds board certifications in Pharmacotherapy, Geriatric Pharmacy, Psychiatric Pharmacy, Ambulatory Care Pharmacy, and Medication Therapy Management. Dr. Lisi has worked in academia, long-term care, acute care, behavioral health, hospice, and medical communications.
Rebecca Andersen, PharmD, BCPS is an assistant professor of Pharmacy Practice at Shenandoah University with a practice site in Internal Medicine at Inova Fairfax Medical Center in Northern Virginia. She completed her Doctorate of Pharmacy at Wingate University School of Pharmacy in Wingate, North Carolina, then a postgraduate year 1 residency at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia, and afterward, became a BPS Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS). She has served as a moderator for the ASHP Midyear Educational Steering Committee 2021 Clinical Gem Session, and currently serves as Lead for the ASHP Educational Steering Committee Podcast sessions.