- It is estimated that each year there are at least 7,000 deaths globally caused by the bad handwriting of doctors.
- Despite the use of computers, there are still health professionals who write by hand.
- One of the most recent novelties of Google Lens is a modality to “translate” the content of the prescriptions that doctors issue to their patients.
For decades the handwriting of doctors has been surrounded by controversy. Even health professionals are “reputed” to have extensive knowledge but not to write in the best way. The calligraphy of the prescriptions issued to patients is the best sample because it is sometimes unintelligible to pharmacists.
Unintelligible prescriptions can be deadly
This apparently irrelevant situation is actually quite dangerous. It is only necessary to remember that in 2015 the Healthworld portal published the article Doctor’s illegible handwriting creating confusion, causing death that demonstrates the deadly consequences of not writing in an understandable way.
The core part of the research states that every year 44,000 deaths caused by preventable errors on the part of doctors are recorded. While of that number at least 7 thousand deaths were caused by the bad handwriting of doctors.
With this it is shown that bad handwriting by a doctor can be deadly. The reason is because at the time of writing the prescriptions confusion occurs both among patients and pharmacists.
Due to the above, at the time of supplying a drug, people receive an incorrect one. In addition, confusion is also generated in the indications of the doses and the amount that should be consumed of a medication.
At present this problem has decreased due to the use of computers and even now there are digital medical prescriptions In any case, in the event of a printer failure or in places far from large cities, it is still customary to write by hand.
Graphic designer is inspired by doctors’ handwriting
Now is the time to talk about an idea that has caused controversy. The person in charge is Alexis Moyano, who is a Spanish illustrator, animator and graphic designer. As part of his job, he drew up the first typeface inspired by the handwriting of doctors.
I made a typeface with the handwriting of the doctors. FREE DOWNLOAD HERE: https://t.co/kDFpOiDsGN pic.twitter.com/dLoSmIaTAV
— Alexis Moyano (@_alexismoyano) June 3, 2023
The highlight is that this special typeface can be downloaded for free at this link. Although a strong controversy has immediately been generated on social networks because it has not been possible to determine if it is a mockery or a tribute to health professionals.
Google Lens could be the solution against the bad handwriting of doctors
On the other hand, the doctors’ letter has even caused technology companies to focus on offering a solution. According to the article Google can now read your doctor’s bad handwriting from Techcrunch, the technology company is working on the development of an improvement to Google Lens, the object recognition mobile application. The novelty is that now it will be focused on medical prescriptions.
It is planned that this function will eventually be implemented within Google Lens. In this way, users will be able to take photos of their handwritten prescriptions and upload them from the gallery. For its part, the app will have sufficient capacity to instantly process what it says and will indicate the names of the medicines mentioned.
A very important point is that this function will not be exclusive to “translate” medical prescriptions. It is expected to be used for all types of documents. Therefore, it will be useful for the real-time interpretation of any sheet.
Also read:
Google has a new goal: Decipher the handwriting of doctors and that’s how it plans to achieve it
The bad handwriting of doctors causes up to 7 thousand deaths per year
Doctor opens debate: Are doctors with tattoos less professional?