SafetyNet webinar: Psycholinguistic tests predict real-world drug name confusion error rates

by GM PSRC Web team | 14 Dec 2025 | Blog, Training and events, Upcoming training & events | 0 comments

Speaker: Prof Bruce Lambert, School of Communication, Northwestern University, USA

Date: 28 January 2026
Time: 12:30 – 1:30pm
Where: Online (Zoom)

Wrong-drug medication errors are common, yet regulators lack empirically validated methods for screening drug names for confusability. While previous research demonstrated that psycholinguistic tests on drug name pairs correlate with real-world error rates in chain pharmacies, regulators evaluate individual names that may be confused with multiple drugs (e.g., hydroxyzine with hydralazine, hydrocet, thorazine, and hydrochlorothiazide). This study examined whether an individual drug name’s performance on psycholinguistic tests correlates with that name’s total real-world error rate. Nineteen pharmacists and 18 pharmacy technicians completed memory and perception tests assessing confusability of 77 drug names under conditions that hindered their ability to see, hear, or remember each name. Mean error rates on the psycholinguistic tests were positively correlated with log-adjusted real-world error rates (r=0.50, p<0.0001), and regression analyses confirmed that lab-measured error rates significantly predicted real-world error rates and vice versa. Combined with earlier work on look-alike sound-alike pairs, these findings validate the use of psycholinguistic tests for assessing the confusability of proposed drug names before they enter clinical use.

Speaker

Professor Bruce L. Lambert
Department of Communication Studies
School of Communication, Northwestern University, USA

Dr Lambert received his Ph.D. in Speech Communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and in the Department of Medical Social Sciences (by courtesy) at Northwestern University. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on health communication, clinical informatics, patient and medication safety, and medical liability reform. He is also President of BLL Consulting, Inc. a firm that solves problems involving health, communication, and technology. He blogs about communication at howcommunicationworks.com.