Applying human factors to develop an improved package design for (Rx) medication drug labels in a pharmacy setting

As many as 98,000 people die every year from preventable medical errors. Among pharmacists, the most common error reported is the selection of the wrong drug. Merck met with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discuss the optimization of the U.S. label for solid oral dosage forms of Merck medications. These discussions led to the development of revised label designs for six products that were then evaluated using failure modes and effects analysis and an expert review by human factors specialists. There were no errors among 425 filled prescriptions in the validation test of the final label. Key changes to the original labels include the use of a non-branded logo, high-contrast color bands for dosage strength, and an enhanced three-dimensional tablet image. The redesigned labels were approved by the US FDA in June 2011. Practical applications: The redesigned label should improve the accurate selection of medications from pharmacy shelves.