Campaigns & Initiatives

The National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention (ADE Action Plan) identifies common, preventable, and measurable adverse drug events and aligns the efforts of Federal health agencies to reduce patient harms from these ADEs nationally. The three initial targets of the ADE Action Plan are anticoagulants, diabetes agents, and opioid pain relievers. The Action Plan suggests a four-pronged approach to reduce patient harms from adverse drug events through public health surveillance, prevention, incentives and oversight, and research.

The PROTECT Initiative is an innovative collaboration led by CDC. PROTECT brings together public health agencies, private sector companies, professional organizations, consumer/patient advocates, and academic experts to keep children safe from accidental medication overdoses. Medication overdoses are a significant public health problem and can lead to harm, sometimes requiring emergency treatment or hospitalization.

Up and Away and Out of Sight is an educational campaign to remind parents and caregivers of young children about the importance of safe medication storage and what to do in case of an emergency. Up & Away initiative of PROTECT in partnership with CDC, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association Educational Foundation, and a coalition of partners.

Protect the Ones You Love: Child Injuries Are Preventable is a CDC initiative to raise parents’ awareness about the leading causes of child injury in the United States and how they can be prevented. Working together, we can keep our children safe and help them live to their full potential.

Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work is a CDC-led campaign that aims to reduce the rate of rise of antibiotic resistance by: promoting adherence to appropriate prescribing guidelines among providers, decreasing demand for antibiotics for viral upper respiratory infections among healthy adults and parents of young children, and increasing adherence to prescribed antibiotics for upper respiratory infections.

Get Smart for Healthcare is a CDC-led campaign that focuses on improving antibiotic use in inpatient healthcare settings such as acute-care facilities through the implementation of antibiotic stewardship programs. These programs are designed to ensure that hospitalized patients receive the right antibiotic, at the right dose, at the right time, and for the right duration.

Treating for Two Initiative, led by CDC, aims to prevent birth defects and other poor pregnancy outcomes by providing women and healthcare providers with reliable, quality information about use of specific medications in pregnancy and by encouraging treatment options that pose the lowest risk for both the mother and her baby.

The Safe Use Initiative is an FDA–led collaboration to reduce preventable harm from medications. The goal of the Safe Use Initiative is to reduce preventable harm by identifying specific, preventable medication risks and developing, implementing and evaluating cross-sector interventions with partners who are committed to safe medication use.