Abstract
There are approximately 400,000 adverse drug events per year in hospitalized patients which has resulted in more than $ 3.5 billion spent in subsequent recovery care. The present paper reviews the literature relating to the usability of information found on pharmaceutical labels. In particular, we examine the legibility and comprehensibility of the information provided on the labels. In addition, we highlight the differences in the physical makeup of medication that can be implemented to help users identify their medication. Finally, we provide recommendations for factors that should be examined in future research to improve the usability of pharmaceutical labels. Presently, the FDA has few standards and guidelines regarding the content and layout of a prescription label. We hope that the recommendations provided in this paper can lead to the development of standards for formatting and presenting information on prescription labels that will reduce the number of medical cases involving ingestion of the wrong medication.
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Herron, M., Vu, KP.L. (2013). Are Prescription Labels Usable? A Review and Analysis. In: Yamamoto, S. (eds) Human Interface and the Management of Information. Information and Interaction for Health, Safety, Mobility and Complex Environments. HIMI 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8017. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39215-3_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39215-3_30
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