Using name overlap analysis to understand medication name search safety.
Flynn AJ, Mieure KD, Myers C. Using name overlap analysis to understand medication name search safety. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2024;81(14):622-633. doi:10.1093/ajhp/zxae048.
There are many strategies to improve medication safety, such as tall man lettering, but serious errors still occur. This study describes a new method of ensuring the appropriate medication is selected by requiring users to type just enough characters of the medication name to uniquely identify a single name. Results show as few as 4 characters may be needed to identify a single name, but substantial research is still required, including in real-world settings.