Tallman lettering as a strategy for differentiation in look-alike, sound-alike drug names: The role of familiarity in differentiating drug doppelgangers

Both healthcare providers and laypeople detected changes in confusable pairs of drug names more often (P < 0.0001) and more quickly (P < 0.05) when changes were presented in Tallman lettering, though the benefits were more pronounced for healthcare providers (p < 0.05). Familiarity with both drug names in a confusable pair mitigated the benefit of Tallman lettering. Results are discussed in terms of bottom-up and top-down attentional systems for processing of information in the context of the varied healthcare environments.