Presents information on a computer program designed by Bruce
Lambert to help in sorting drug trademarks. Problem facing the United
States Food and Drug Administration; Psychological explanation for
confusion over names that rhyme.
By
Jane Mendle, published on May 01, 1998
What's in a name? For drug companies deciding what a new medicine
will becalled, there's a lot riding on the right choice: a successful
patent can be worth millions of dollars. But names matter to doctors and
patients, too, for a different reason: of the thousands of reported
medication errors made each year in this country, fully a fourth can be
blamed on look-alike or sound-alike drug names.
The Food and Drug Administration currently relies on a panel of
experts to sort through drug-name applications, rejecting those that
sound too much like products already on the shelves. But a recent
explosion in the number of drug trademarks has made this task all but
impossible.
Enter Bruce Lambert, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at
Chicago. Lambert has designed a computer program that identifies medicine
mixups waiting to happen--and that does so by anticipating the operation
of the human brain.
"Our short-term memory works by breaking down words into smaller
chunks'" Lambert explains. "When some of the same chunks occur in two
different names, those names are more likely to be confused." Another way
we remember a name is to keep its sound uppermost in our minds. Such
verbal memory is fleeting, however, so words with similar sounds can
easily be substituted for the right one.
Lambert's computer program match" medicine names with others that
resemble them in sound or spelling. Above certain threshold of
similarity, he's found, mistakes multiply.
The FDA is taking note: it's now using the program on a trial
basis, and may soon put it to work on all drug applications.
PHOTO (COLOR): Rymes with Prozac
Tags:
brain,
bruce lambert,
chunks,
computer program,
drug applications,
drug names,
food and drug,
human brain,
medication errors,
medicine,
Memory,
memory works,
name,
new medicine,
photo color,
right choice,
rymes,
short term memory,
technology,
trial basis,
university of illinois at chicago,
verbal memory
