Identifying medications is an important aspect of managing your medical record. Identifying medications involves the identification of name, appearance, and pharmacy label. This will help you organize and prioritize your medications. Identifying medications also involves putting them into color-coded containers.
Identification by name
Whether you’re taking a prescription medication or over-the-counter (OTC) medication, it’s important to be able to identify the pills you take. Taking an unidentified pill could cause harm. The good news is that there are tools available online to help you do this.
One of the most common ways to identify a medication is by the color and shape of the pill. You can also try searching by the imprint, which is the code that the drug manufacturer gives to each pill.
If you cannot identify the pill you’re taking, you should take it to a pharmacy. Your pharmacist or doctor will be able to help you. They can also determine whether the pill is FDA approved or not.
Identification by appearance
Identifying a drug has long been a thorn in the side of pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Before COVID-19 was introduced, a single counterfeit pill could cost billions of dollars and lead to the untimely death of a patient. To protect consumers from the perils of the pharmaceutical pipeline, a handful of companies are making their own pill identification technologies available to consumers and businesses of all sizes. While these solutions may not be perfect, they are certainly better than their counterfeit counterparts.
A recent study in France, for example, tested the effects of incorporating the aforementioned technologies in a pilot study of randomly selected pharmacies across the Midi-Pyrenees region. While the study is still ongoing, the results suggest that a few improvements are needed before we can all rest easy.
Identification by pharmacy label
Having a prescription bottle with a label on it is not an entirely new occurrence. Historically, the best way to ensure accuracy and efficiency has been to put the drug inside a container. The container is the best way to ensure the medication isn’t diluted in the course of travel. The aforementioned container is used in pharmacies, hospitals, and physician’s offices. The container entails a handful of key ingredients and several other ingredients ad hoc, such as a syringe and needle. As a result, accuracy and efficiency is a prime goal for any medical professional.
Using the proper container is the best way to ensure that the medication is dispensed correctly, as well as ensuring patient compliance with dosages. Using a container with an accurate label can also help to mitigate the risk of accidental overdose.
Organizing medications into color-coded containers
Organizing medications into color-coded containers may help reduce medication errors and ensure that you are taking the medicine at the right times. Keeping a written list of medications, as well as the doctor’s name, can help ensure that you are taking the correct doses. You can also use a calendar to mark which pills you’ve taken.
Organizing medications into color-coded container may also help people with cognitive or visual impairments. These people may have trouble reading the labels or the daily dosage specifications. The novel coding system will help these individuals keep track of their medications.
Color-coding for medicine containers provides an easy and inexpensive way to indicate the number of times you should take your prescription. It can be particularly beneficial to illiterate or elderly people.
Prioritizing drugs for discontinuation
Keeping tabs on the right prescription drugs can spell doom if you aren’t careful. So what do you do? Fortunately, the drug industry is abuzz with discussion about how to do things right. For example, there are guidelines for dispensing medications that are a must for pharmacists. It’s a good idea to have a plan of attack to ensure that medications are not dispensed that are not needed. For example, if you have an opioid problem and need treatment, don’t stop at a pill box. This is especially true for those on the path to abstinence.
The best way to do this is to devise a multi-doctor medication review policy whereby all drugs are deemed safe to administer. This can be accomplished in two phases. The first phase involves a drug review with a pharmacist in attendance who reviews the medical history of each patient. This is followed by a clinical triage that involves a pharmacist or nurse. The latter is the more important phase.
