As medication use increases with age and the presence of multiple chronic health conditions, it’s common for adults over the age of 65 to take multiple medications. Also known as polypharmacy, the use of multiple medications can sometimes lead to serious complications, including hospital readmissions and other adverse outcomes.
As a part of safe medication practices, VA pharmacists and physicians regularly review Veterans’ medication profiles for potentially inappropriate medications.
In 2016, Dr. Saraswathy Battar, then chief of Geriatrics at Central Arkansas VA, developed an innovation called VIONE. Since 2016, over 21,000 VA health care providers across the nation have carefully reviewed and successfully stopped over 2.6 million unnecessary medicines for over 1 million Veterans by engaging in shared decision-making efforts.
Battar is pictured above with Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal.
VIONE provides proactive medication management
VIONE stands for the five categories used to evaluate medications: Vital, Important, Optional, Not needed, and Every (medication has an indication).
Empowering VA providers to identify and discontinue unnecessary medications that can harm or burden Veterans, VIONE improves the quality of life and safety of Veterans.
“Our goal is to improve health care outcomes for our Veterans. We recently worked with a Veteran with heart disease who was experiencing nightmares and vivid and disturbing hallucinations after starting a new medication,” said Battar. “We worked closely with him and his cardiologist to cut down and eventually stop some of his medications. We saw a dramatic improvement almost immediately. The Veteran was getting a full night’s rest, his hallucinations stopped, he was able to move around and speak full sentences and he felt happier.
“Another Veteran was in a motor vehicle accident 35 years ago and was bed ridden since then, taking several strong medications prescribed by different medical providers. He still had severe pain and weakness. After working for a few months to carefully stopping and adjusting medicines, providing effective rehabilitation and recreation therapies, he started moving around in his wheelchair, got discharged and is now gainfully employed in the community.”
Frontline developed innovation makes national impact
In 2016, VIONE entered and won the VHA Shark Tank Competition, accelerating its efforts to spread to additional VA facilities. With support from Diffusion of Excellence, VIONE began expanding nationally. VIONE is a grassroots-led initiative that began at one VA facility, is now active at 138 VA facilities, and has received several prestigious local, national and international awards for its impact on Veteran health and well-being.
Veterans receiving care in any VA care setting—including hospitals, rural areas, outpatient facilities and virtually—can benefit from VIONE as the tool is part of VA’s Electronic Health Record system.
VIONE’s web-based tools, such as a the deprescribing dashboard, enable VA providers to make medications work for Veterans rather than potentially creating harm.
To learn more about VIONE, visit Diffusion Marketplace.
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