Tall Man lettering

The Office of Generic Drugs of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) encourages manufacturers to use tall man lettering labels to visually differentiate their drugs' names,[1] and a number of hospitals, clinics, and health care systems use tall man lettering in their computerized order entry, automated dispensing machines, medication admission records, prescription labels, and drug product labels.

[3] Wrong-drug errors have been found to occur at a rate of about one per thousand orders filled or dispensed.

[4] Evidence regarding the effect of Tall Man lettering on error rates is mixed.

A 2004 eye-tracking study found that Tall Man lettering resulted in fewer errors when selecting a target drug from an array of choices.

[4] The FDA published a list[7]: Table 1  of recommended Tall-Man Letters for look-alike drugs which includes, but is not limited to: The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) has a supplemental list covering pairs not recommended by the FDA, but considered necessary by the ISMP.