These clinical tools are designed to help clinicians assess the safety and appropriateness of medications in older adults. Links to three of our completed tools are provided below. If you have questions or comments about the clinical tools, please contact Ryan Carnahan at ryan-carnahan@uiowa.edu.

• Anticholinergic Pocket Reference Card/Anticholinergic Brochure – Medications with anticholinergic properties can cause a multitude of adverse effects in older people. They are particularly contraindicated in people with dementia who are highly sensitive to the cognitive and psychiatric adverse effects. The reference card briefly overviews anticholinergic adverse effects and lists many medications thought to have clinically significant anticholinergic effects. Its purpose is to help clinicians reduce anticholinergic use by vulnerable elders, especially those with cognitive impairment. The brochure is designed with patients in mind, and includes some common questions they might have regarding anticholinergics as well as the medications included on the reference card.
• A Pharmacist’s Guide for Collection of Complementary Alternative Medication and Dietary Supplement Information from Patients – This tool is to help pharmacists or other healthcare providers take a history on the use of complementary or alternative medicines (CAM) and dietary supplements, and screen for common drug interactions with these products. The CAM products and supplements are mapped to a list on the second page that provides a brief description of the drug interactions and their potential significance. This is meant to be a brief screening tool and does not include a comprehensive list of all possible drug or disease state interactions.
• Tool to Improve Medications in Elderly via Review (TIMER) – The purpose of TIMER is to help clinicians think through medication use in a systematic way and identify some of the most common drug-related problems in older adults. In addition, TIMER highlights some of the most common and important drug interactions, explains how to determine goals for cholesterol treatment, and provides recommendations for how to ask patients questions about their medications, medication taking behaviors, and possible side effects.
• Managing Your Medications – This Managing Your Medications guide was developed to help older adults work through the basics of managing medications. These include setting goals, what questions to ask health care providers, how to ask these questions, aids for remembering to take medications, issues related to medication access, adverse drug effects, keeping a medication list, and medication therapy management.
• Improving Antipsychotic Appropriateness in Dementia Patients (IA-ADAPT) – This website includes information and resources to help clinicians, providers, and consumers better understand how to manage problem behaviors and psychosis in people with dementia using evidence-based approaches. This includes brief lectures, written content, quick reference guides for clinicians and providers, and information for families or patients on the risks and benefits of antipsychotics for people with dementia (a.k.a. Alzheimer’s disease and others). You can also request laminated quick reference guides to use in your practice, which can help you put the strategies you learn about into action.