Profession

USP database details look-alike, sound-alike drugs

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 13, 2008

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U.S. Pharmacopeia launched a new, searchable database listing nearly 1,500 commonly used drugs involved in look-alike and sound-alike medication errors since 2003. When a user enters a drug name into the USP Drug Error Finder, up pops a list of other drugs with similar-sounding or similar-looking names and any associated errors listed in the USP's Medmarx database, to which hospitals anonymously report drug mix-ups.

For example, a search found that the blood pressure medication clonidine was confused with the gout drug colchicine, the antihistamine cetirizine and the anti-anxiety drug clonazepam. The site shows if the mix-ups harmed or killed patients.

USP hopes the Drug Error Finder, unveiled in August, can help patients looking to ensure they got the right drug, as well as doctors, pharmacists and other health care professionals. USP is a private, pharmaceutical standards-setting group in Rockville, Md. The free Drug Error Finder is available at the USP Web site (link).

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/10/13/prbf1013.htm.

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