A statistic commonly cited is that patients in their 80s and 90s take about one prescription per decade of life.
MedPage Today writes about the lifelong mission of 95-year old Dr. Morris Collen, the founding physician of Kaiser Permanente. He is one of the pioneers whose research of drug interactions is especially relevant today, when about 40 percent of adults over the age of 65 take five or more prescription drugs. That number increases for those in a nursing home.
Dr. Collen’s story is inspiring, and even at his age, he still participates with the team over at the Kaiser research facility.
“When I spend an hour or two with that brilliant team there, I drop off some 40 years,” he says. “I feel much younger, exhilarated by the discussions that go on, so I will do this until they carry me out so to speak.”
Amazing.
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{ 1 comment }
Only one prescription per decade?
Maybe EMS patients are a different breed, since they seem to easily double, or triple that number.
Nursing home patients seem to have one page of drugs for every 2 decades.
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