This section details the items in the Clinical Guidelines that have been modified in the Consumer Guidelines. Item 6.2.2 Display prescription details in full Recommendation: use full English words in place of symbols The Clinical Guidelines recommend full English words to describe all text elements of a prescription, with the exceptions of decimal points, and ‘%’, ‘+’, ‘&’ ‘/’. Consumers preferred that the symbol be replaced with or descriptors, as appropriate. ‘/’ ‘in’ For example: mg/mL’ becomes mg in 1 mL’ ‘2 ‘2 mg/hour’ becomes mg over 1 hour’. ’10 ‘10 However, consistent information is also important, so where is part of an expression of strength ‘/’ and is used in other presentations of product information, such as the packaging and consumer medicines Information, the should be retained. The symbol is also retained when it is part of ‘/’ ‘/’ a brand name combination (e.g. Coversyl Plus 5 mg/1.25 mg). Recommendation: display time using the 12-hour clock with descriptive words The Clinical Guidelines recommend using the 24-hour clock to display time, with used to show ‘am’ times before midday (e.g. 10:00 am, 19:00). For consumer-facing information, display time using the 12-hour clock, with the morning’ to ‘in show times before midday (e.g. 10:00 in the morning) and the afternoon’, the evening’ ‘in ‘in or night’ to show times after midday (e.g. 9:00 at night). Midnight should be displayed as ‘at midnight’ and midday should be displayed as midday’ (not 12:00 noon). ’12:00 ’12:00 Rationale: improve clarity of information for consumers Consumers may not be familiar with the way the symbol is used by health professionals. ‘/’ Using everyday words such as or improves clarity and prevents misreading or ‘in’ ‘over’ misunderstanding. Consumer testing for these guidelines (see Appendix 1) suggested that ‘am’ or to indicate time could be misread or missed altogether, and consumers preferred the ‘pm’ ‘in morning’, the evening’, night’ and similar descriptors. ‘in ‘at
This section details the items in the Clinical Guidelines that have been modified in the Consumer Guidelines. Item 6.2.2 Display prescription details in full Recommendation: use full English words in place of symbols The Clinical Guidelines recommend full English words to describe all text elements of a prescription, with the exceptions of ‘%’, decimal points, ‘+’, ‘&’ and ‘/’. Consumers preferred that the ‘/’ symbol be replaced with ‘in’ or descriptors, as appropriate. For example: ‘2 mg/mL’ becomes ‘2 mg in 1 mL’ ’10 mg/hour’ becomes ‘10 mg over 1 hour’. However, consistent information is also important, so where ‘/’ is part of an expression of strength and is used in other presentations of product information, such as the packaging and consumer medicines Information, the ‘/’ should be retained. The ‘/’ symbol is also retained when it is part of a brand name combination (e.g. Coversyl Plus 5 mg/1.25 mg). Recommendation: display time using the 12-hour clock with descriptive words The Clinical Guidelines recommend using the 24-hour clock to display time, with ‘am’ used to show times before midday (e.g. 10:00 am, 19:00). For consumer-facing information, display time using the 12-hour clock, with ‘in the morning’ to show times before midday (e.g. 10:00 in the morning) and ‘in the afternoon’, ‘in the evening’ or ‘at night’ to show times after midday (e.g. 9:00 at night). Midnight should be displayed as ’12:00 midnight’ and midday should be displayed as ’12:00 midday’ (not 12:00 noon). Rationale: improve clarity of information for consumers Consumers may not be familiar with the way the ‘/’ symbol is used by health professionals. Using everyday words such as ‘in’ or ‘over’ improves clarity and prevents misreading or misunderstanding. Consumer testing for these guidelines (see Appendix 1) suggested that ‘am’ or ‘pm’ to indicate time could be misread or missed altogether, and consumers preferred ‘in the morning’, ‘in the evening’, ‘at night’ and similar descriptors.
National-guidelines-for-on-screen-display-of-consumer-medicines-October-2016.docx