Linda Wastila, BSPharm, MSPH, PhD, professor and Parke-Davis Chair of Geriatric Pharmacotherapy, has been involved in research focusing on prescription drug safety and policy issues for more than 20 years.
Research Interests:
As a health services researcher, she has examined issues such as access to prescription drugs, outcomes related to reduced prescription drug access, cost and financing of prescription drug benefits and programs, appropriateness of drug prescribing, outcomes associated with inappropriate prescribing, and prescription drug misuse and abuse. Her primary research interests are listed here.
- Pharmaceutical policy: Prescription drug monitoring programs, opioid analgesic prevention, antipsychotic use in nursing facilities
- Prescription drug abuse in older adults
- Antipsychotic and other psychopharmacological medication use, quality, and outcomes in nursing facility residents
- Regulatory policy of vaccines and novel medications
- Drug and vaccine safety: outcomes and policy
Current Projects:
Quality of Psychopharmacological Medication Prescribing in Nursing Home Residents
Funded by the Research Retirement Foundation, the purpose of this research is to develop psychopharmacological medication quality indicators (PMQIs) in order to encourage appropriate psychopharmacological medication use in long-term care residents. We apply rigorous multivariable analytic approaches to longitudinal and nationally-representative Medicare administrative data of nursing home residents linked to Part D prescription drug event and Minimum Data Set files. Using this novel dataset, we benchmark the prevalence and quality of psychopharmacological medications prescribed in nursing homes, and how use and quality influences important clinical outcomes, including mortality, falls, hip fracture, and cognitive and physical functioning.