Tall Man Drug Names Added to Medi-Span Electronic Drug File.PHILADELPHIA -- Addition Reduces the Potential for Medication Errors Resulting from Similar-Sounding Drug Names, Providing Greater Patient Safety Wolters Kluwer Wolters Kluwer N.V. (Euronext: WKL) is a leading global information services and publishing company. The company provides products and services for professionals in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal and regulatory, and education sectors. Health (WKHealth), the leading drug and health information provider, today announced that it has added 35 "Tall Man" drug names to its Medi-Span Electronic Drug File(TM) (Med-File) and Supplemental Name File. The Tall Man designations use capital letters to help distinguish look-alike drug products on computer screens and reports, thus reducing the risk healthcare providers will choose the wrong drug when medication names look or sound similar. Examples of Tall Man name changes include: acetohexamide-acetoHEXAMIDE vs. acetazolamide-acetaZOLAMIDE; dobutamine-DOBUTamine vs. dopamine-DOPamine; and prednisone-predniSONE vs. prednisolone-prednisoLONE. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. ) Office of Generic Drugs has identified 33 drug names prone to look-alike drug name medication errors. Based on their recommendation, prescription medication manufacturers have voluntarily adopted Tall Man lettering by revising the appearance of these drug names on their packaging to minimize medication errors. In addition to these 33, WKHealth has also included Tall Man drug names for epinephrine (EPINEPHrine) and ephedrine ephedrine (ĭfĕd`rĭn, ĕf`ĭdrēn'), drug derived from plants of the genus Ephedra (see Pinophyta), most commonly used to prevent mild or moderate attacks of bronchial asthma. (ePHEDrine) as recommended by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP ISMP Institute for Safe Medication Practices ISMP InstallShield MultiPlatform ISMP International Society of Meeting Planners ISMP ISF (Information Strike Force) Service Management Plan ISMP Integrated Systems Management Processor ). "Wolters Kluwer Health's addition of the Tall Man drug names to our databases will help prevent medication mix-ups due to similar-sounding or similar-spelled generic names," said Ken Killion, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Wolters Kluwer Health's Clinical Tools business unit. "This is an important change recommended by patient safety organizations that will, in turn, help protect overall patient safety." Medi-Span, a product line of Wolters Kluwer Health, has been a leader in pioneering clinical intelligence for more than 30 years, providing comprehensive drug information that can be integrated within various systems for healthcare professionals worldwide. Medi-Span offers a complete line of drug databases, including clinical decision support and disease suite modules, application programming interfaces and stand-alone PC A desktop or laptop computer that is not permanently connected to a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN). Throughout the 1990s, millions of stand-alone PCs were networked in offices, but it is no longer uncommon to find computers networked in the home so that family products. About Wolters Kluwer Health Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading provider of information for professionals and students in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry. It is part of Wolters Kluwer nv, Amsterdam, an international legal, tax, business, education and health information services See Information Systems. company with annual sales (2003) of EUR EUR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Euro. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. 3.4 billion. The Clinical Tools business unit offers industry-leading intellectual property, next-generation integrated drug and disease databases and point-of-care information tools for healthcare professionals. These tools aid in disease management, error reduction, workflow improvements, and more effective patient management and are used in thousands of hospitals, pharmacies, and physician offices. The business unit includes the Medi-Span, Facts and Comparisons, Clin-eguide and SKOLAR brands. Other major brands of Wolters Kluwer Health include traditional publishers of medical and drug reference tools and textbooks, such as Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; electronic information providers, such as Ovid Technologies Ovid Technologies (or just Ovid) is part of the Wolters Kluwer group of companies. It provides access to online bibliographic databases, journals and other products, chiefly in the area of health sciences. ; and pharmaceutical information provider Adis International. www.wkhealth.com. |
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