Sound-alike Drug Names Research Articles

Effects of tall man lettering on the visual behaviour of critical care nurses while identifying syringe drug labels: a randomised in situ simulation

BackgroundPatients in intensive care units are prone to the occurrence of medication errors. Look-alike, sound-alike drugs with similar drug names can lead to medication errors and therefore endanger patient safety....

Look-alike, Sound-alike Drugs in India

No Abstract.The Indian pharmaceutical market is swamped with many branded and generic drugs which look-alike and sound-alike. These are a nightmare for healthcare professionals who deal with them. These drugs overlap in strength, dosage, indications, and storage conditions and packaging as well. The risks due to look-alike, sound-alike drug names result when a pharmacist or healthcare professional accidentally gives the wrong drug or patients select the wrong drugs themselves due to similarity in the name or packaging of the drug. The present study was aimed at listing out the recent drugs which look-alike and sound-alike in the Indian pharmaceutical market and also highlight various regulatory guidelines which are available in selected countries.

Tallman lettering as a strategy for differentiation in look-alike, sound-alike drug names: The role of familiarity in differentiating drug doppelgangers

Tallman lettering, capitalizing the dissimilar portions of easily confused drug names, is one strategy for reducing medication errors. We assessed the efficacy of Tallman lettering in a visually complex environment using a change detection method with healthcare providers and laypeople. In addition, the effect of familiarity with the drug name was assessed using a subset of responses collected from healthcare providers.Both healthcare providers and laypeople detected changes in confusable pairs of drug names more often (P < 0.0001) and more quickly (P < 0.05) when changes were presented in Tallman lettering, though the benefits were more pronounced for healthcare providers (p < 0.05). Familiarity with both drug names in a confusable pair mitigated the benefit of Tallman lettering. Results are discussed in terms of bottom-up and top-down attentional systems for processing of information in the context of the varied healthcare environments.

Pharmacists and health systems prepare to add biosimilars to formularies

Prescription drug spending is increasing while most other areas of health care spending are slowing down. 1 In 2013, the most recent year for which CMS data are available, prescription drug spending increased by 2.5%—a staggering leap from the 0.5% increase in 2012. 2 Many in health care are pinning their hopes on biosimilars to help slowthe quick clip of rising drug costs.

What’s in a drug name?

What’s in a drug name?

FDA works toward product naming, packaging guidance

Pharmacists and other health care professionals in June urged FDA to standardize how medications are named and simplify labeling and packaging to help reduce medication errors. The two-day public workshop, held in College Park, Maryland, was convened by FDA to gather input from stakeholders as the agency prepares a guidance document for industry on medication labeling, packaging, and naming practices. “This is the first step in future development in regulation,” said Carol Holquist, director of FDA’s Division of Medication Error Prevention and Analysis (DMEPA). “What we are trying to do is consider the body of knowledge that’s out there and come to a consensus.” She said that although preparing regulations can take “10 to 15 years,” FDA hopes to produce a draft guidance document by the end of this fiscal year. Look-alike and sound-alike drug names are a well-recognized source of medication errors, said Michael Cohen, president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) and a member of the expert panel FDA convened for the June workshop. ISMP’s website lists pairs of drug names that have been linked to medication errors, including problematic names for which the Joint Commission requires accredited health care organizations to take action to improve patient safety.

Analgesic Prescribing Errors and Associated Medication Characteristics

Medication errors involving analgesics, including mistakes in prescribing, are a major contributor to suboptimal therapeutic outcomes and preventable adverse patient events. A systematic evaluation of 2,044 prevented (near-miss) analgesic prescribing errors detected in a teaching hospital was performed to better understand these errors and contributing error-prone analgesic medication characteristics. The overall detected error rate was 2.87 errors per 1,000 analgesic orders, with the error rate more than twice as high in pediatric patients than in adults. Error rates varied widely between drugs, dosage forms, and routes of administration, but there was general consistency of error rates within drug groups with similar characteristics. Commonly prescribed medications were associated with the most errors, but less frequently prescribed agents had higher error rates. A number of factors were found to contribute to errors, and the following characteristics contributed to 40% of errors: availability in dose forms for multiple routes of administration; modified dosage forms; atypical dosage regimens; sound-alike drug names; and analgesics used on an ongoing scheduled basis. Identifiable analgesic product characteristics and uses are associated with higher risk for errors. The findings of this study can guide patient and caregiver education, and can be incorporated into medication safety strategies to reduce patient risk from analgesic errors.

USP says thousands of drug names look or sound alike

More than 3170 pairs of U.S.-approved generic and brand drug names look or sound enough alike that health care workers have mixed up those medications, according to new research from the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). The research, based on more than 26,000 records in two USP-associated medication-error reporting programs for 2003–06, also found that patients might have been harmed by 1.4% of the mistakes attributed to look-alike or sound-alike drug names. Seven of the mistakes might have contributed to or resulted in death (see the table1). Given that the programs involve the voluntary reporting of mistakes, the number of mix-ups is “probably understated at best,” said USP Vice President Diane D. Cousins in a January 29 media briefing. The vast majority of the records, 26,092, came from more than 670 health care facilities participating in USP’s Medmarx program, according to the data report produced by USP. Another 512 records came from the medication-errors reporting program run by USP and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP).

What's in a Name? The Trouble With Brand Name Extensions and Suffixes

The difficulty in keeping abreast of all of the newest pharmaceuticals on the market, including their spellings and pronunciations, can lead to errors for nurses in the emergency department who are charged with collecting medication histories and performing medication reconciliation activities. In addition to dealing with the well-publicized problems associated with look-alike, sound-alike drug names and look-alike packaging,1-3 ED staff (and patients) must deal with the confusion that is created by the pharmaceutical industry's common use of brand name extensions and suffixes.

Improving systems should help to reduce errors due to look-alike and sound-alike drug names

Improving systems should help to reduce errors due to look-alike and sound-alike drug names

Look-Alike and Sound-Alike Drug Names

Look-Alike and Sound-Alike Drug Names