A new iconic drug information system inspired by road signs

VCM for diabetes treatment. Click here for more information.

Although drug prescriptions are notoriously difficult to read, prescribing errors due to a lack of knowledge of drug properties are a worse problem.

Now, a new information icon system has been developed by researchers in France. The researchers describe their system, a graphical language for medical knowledge visualisation called VCM (Visualisation des Connaissances Médicales), in the open access journal BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making.

VCM icons for current diseases and signs, risks and antecedents. Click here for more information.

Jean-Baptiste Lamy of the University of Paris and colleagues recognized that doctors do not always recall, nor have easy access to, detailed drug information. They can refer to drug monographs, but this can be inconvenient and time consuming in a busy medical practice. Lamy and his team reasoned that a new symbolic language for drug information could speed up the process and help avoid prescribing errors.

The VCM graphical language uses a small set of graphical signs, akin to laundry symbols or road signs, which may be combined to build simple sentences that convey information of the kind usually described in long-winded drug monographs, such as a drug’s side effects or interactions and conditions when it should not be prescribed. The resulting system, together with the doctor’s underlying medical training, can be used to help determine the appropriate prescription for the patient.