The Beers Criteria for Potential Risks of Medications in Older Adults, commonly known as the Beers List, is a guide for healthcare professionals to help improve the safety of medications prescribed to older patients. The criteria encourage the avoidance of unnecessary medications, reducing risk-benefit ratios, polypharmacy, drug interactions, and adverse drug interactions. The Beers Criteria are used in geriatric clinics to monitor and improve the quality of healthcare services. They are also used in clinical practice, training, research, and healthcare policy as a tool for performance evaluation and recording outcomes. The Beers Criteria lists medications that are likely to have risks that outweigh their benefits for patients over the age of 65. By taking these criteria into account, healthcare professionals can reduce the risk of serious or fatal side effects from medications. As the number of people entering older age increases, the importance of providing safe and effective healthcare services is becoming increasingly important. The Beers Criteria are intended as a general guide for healthcare professionals and are not intended to replace expert opinion when prescribing medications to individual patients. The Bednitz and STOPP/START criteria have been shown to be useful as a complement to the Beers criteria to guide healthcare practitioners in safely dispensing medications to older adults. Mark Beers, MD, developed the Beers criteria in 1991 through a consensus-based expert group using the Delphi method. The criteria were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 1991 and were updated in 1997, 2003, and 2012. In 2011, the American Society for Aging brought together eleven experts from a variety of health care disciplines, including physicians, nurses, and pharmacists, to develop and update the Beers criteria. The updated Beers criteria from the American Society for Aging in 2012 differ from previous versions in several areas. In addition to using the updated Delphi method, the expert group used the same evidence-based approach that the group used to develop the initial Guide to Continuous Pain in 1998. In its 2011 report, the Medical Foundation advised all guideline developers to complete a systematic review of the evidence they use. At the recommendation of the Medical Foundation, the American Society for Aging added a general comment section that was updated in parallel with the general review. In a significant departure from previous versions of the Beers criteria, each recommendation was evaluated on the quality of the evidence supporting the expert panel’s recommendations and the strength of their recommendations. It is also important to note that the clinical evidence for this patient population is limited, making the evidence specific to this patient population scarce. In another departure from previous versions of the Beers criteria, the updated version of the guidelines has been divided into three categories instead of two. Category 1 includes medications with significant side effects or limited efficacy; Category 2 includes medications that are inappropriate for patients with a specific disease and that may exacerbate it; and Category 3 includes medications that should be used with caution, which may cause greater harm than good in general, but in certain cases are indispensable if used with caution. The importance of the added category is to focus on tailoring treatment to the needs of the patient. The updated Beers Criteria by the American Society for Aging were published in February 2012 in the online version of the American Society for Aging, are updated periodically, and can be found here: http://www.americangeriatrics.org Medications on the Beers List are categorized by their potential risks into: Use with caution, Avoid, Avoid with certain conditions, and Restricted for use in the elderly. Examples of medications include diphenylhydramine, an antihistamine that causes sedation, confusion, and falls.