Clonidine and Klonopin. Vinblastine and vincristine. Both combinations have been the subject of medication errors that researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) are working to prevent.
The research team is using a computer model and memory testing to try to predict look-alike and sound-alike drug names likely to be involved in medication errors. Experts estimate that drug names that look and sound alike are involved in about one fourth of the thousands of medication errors that occur in the United States each year.
Bruce Lambert, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacy administration at UIC, has developed tests designed to measure how well pharmacists remember the differences between similar looking and sounding medication names in their work environments. The computer model can pick out the names of drugs reported in medication errors from a large database of medication names.
The Food and Drug Administration's Labeling and Nomenclature . . . [Full Text of this Article]
