Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 25, 2025

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody
Published on: September 27, 2024
The problem of look-alike, sound-alike name errors: Drivers and solutions
Rachel Bryan1, Jeffrey K Aronson2, Alison Williams1
1Swansea University, UK.
Abstract:
Look-alike or sound-alike (LASA) medication names may be mistaken for each other, e.g. mercaptamine and mercaptopurine. If an error of this sort is not intercepted, it can reach the patient and may result in harm. LASA errors occur because of shared linguistic properties between names (phonetic or orthographic), and potential for error is compounded by similar packaging, tablet appearance, tablet strength, route of administration or therapeutic indication. Estimates of prevalence range from 0.00003 to 0.0022% of all prescriptions, 7% of near misses, and between 6.2 and 14.7% of all medication error events. Solutions to LASA errors can target people or systems, and include reducing interruptions or distractions during medication administration, typographic tweaks, such as selective capitalization (Tall Man letters) or boldface, barcoding, and computerized physician order entry.
Related Concept Videos
Types of Errors: Detection and Minimization
Absolute error in a measurement is the numerical difference from the true or central value. Relative error is the ratio between absolute error and the true or central value, expressed as a percentage.
Errors can be classified by source, magnitude, and sign. There are three types of errors: systematic, random, and gross.
Systematic or...
Trial and Error and Algorithm
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
Common Leveling Mistakes and Errors
Causes of Similarity-Dissimilarity Effect
Errors in Global Positioning System

