A New Approach to Reducing Suboptimal Drug Use

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Abstract
In 1979, the National Center for Health Services Research (NCHSR) began a grant program to encourage research on improving the quality and economy of prescription drug use. The article by Schaffner et al in this issue of The Journal (p 1728) is one product of that timely initiative. Their research responds to the increasingly evident need—and desire—of practicing physicians for a relevant, convenient, and unbiased source of accurate prescribing information. In this study, Schaffner and co-workers demonstrate an impressive reduction in inappropriate antibiotic use by office-based physicians who were visited by a colleague serving as a peripatetic medication advisor. The drug targets were hard to dispute: few clinicians would defend oral chloramphenicol or clindamycin, or tettacycline for children, as rational outpatient therapy, given the plethora of safer antibiotics available. The fact that the investigators could find more than 200 physicians in their state using these agents on ambulatory patients is

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