Many of the classic symbols and abbreviations used in medical and pharmaceutical fields are extremely arcane. There is complete assurance they would NOT be understood by patients and are a poor way for doctors to communicate with pharmacists. It is like they both have to learn Greek to keep patients from understanding what they are talking about.
A handwritten µ could perhaps be mistaken for a m if poorly formed. However, with the trend toward computerized medical records, faxing typed prescriptions to pharmacists, etc, I think the medical profession should use the proper symbol. >________________________________ > From: Pierre Abbat <p...@bezitopo.org> >To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> >Sent: Saturday, May 3, 2014 11:32 PM >Subject: [USMA:53768] Error-prone abbreviations in medicine > > >https://www.ismp.org/Tools/errorproneabbreviations.pdf >The top of the list is "µg", which supposedly can be misread as "mg". The ISMP >recommends the incorrect symbol "mcg". > >For "cc", it correctly recommends "mL". I don't see how "cc" can be misread as >"u" though. > >There's a "q6PM" for "every day at 6 PM". Why are they using PM instead of 24- >hour clock? > >Pierre >-- >The Black Garden on the Mountain is not on the Black Mountain. > > > >
