It's bad practice to prescribe a brand name drug when a cheaper, viable and approved generic is available. But, particularly in the US, this happens too much, at major cost to the health system.

The team behind Michigan State University's paediatric clinics set out to increase their prescribing of generics, and found that much of the problem was that whilst brand names lodged in staff and patient's minds, generic names were easily forgotten.

Sath Sudhanthar, paediatrician and assistant professor in paediatrics, and Kari Chandler, nurse manager, tell Harriet Vickers how they overcame this and tripled the team's generic medication prescription rate.

Read their full report: http://qir.bmj.com/content/4/1/u209517.w3931.full