Better Drug Labeling for Pharmacists

An article presenting the results of a study on the design of the labels used by manufacturers of medicines. It focuses on reducing the possibility of mistakes by pharmacy staff who use the labels to identify the correct drug when issuing them to customers or patients. The study produced 30 guidelines for the content of manufacturers' prescription medicine labels, and identified the most important design features, including density and consistency, text size, colour contrast against background, and use of size and colour coding. The researchers then developed an optimised label and subjected it to tests, concluding that the redesigned label made the work of pharmacy staff easier, and was therefore likely to reduce the chance of mistakes in real-life situations.