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The British Journal of Diabetes & Vascular Disease
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Prescribing errors in diabetes

Anthony R Cox

School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK, West Midlands Centre for Adverse Drug Reactions, City Hospital, Birmingham, UK, a.r.cox{at}aston.ac.uk

Robin E Ferner

West Midlands Centre for Adverse Drug Reactions, City Hospital, Birmingham, UK

Prescribing errors in diabetes have the potential to cause serious adverse effects. Antidiabetic agents are a significant cause of admission to hospital. Prescribing errors can be caused by poor handwriting, failure to communicate clearly, and by the use of inappropriate abbreviations. Serious errors involving insulin have been reported in the UK media. While education and training may reduce the number of errors, experience shows that errors will continue to occur without changes to systems. Br J Diabetes Vasc Dis 2009;9:84—88

Key Words: adverse events • hyperglycaemia • hypoglycaemia • insulin • prescribing error • sulphonylurea

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The British Journal of Diabetes & Vascular Disease, Vol. 9, No. 2, 84-88 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1474651409103902
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