Nov 30, 2020
Mentioned in this episode
Pronounce Drug Names Like a Pro Online Course
United States Adopted Names Council
I’m publishing one podcast episode per day in the month of November 2020 as part of a challenge called NaPodPoMo. It stands for National Podcast Post Month. November is National Podcast Post Month, and the goal of the challenge is 30 podcast episodes in 30 days.
Most of my episodes this month have talked about my new online course: Pronounce Drug Names Like a Pro. You can find it at kimnewlove.com or visit thepharmacistsvoice.com and click on the store button.
In today’s episode, I talk about reconciling some differences about drug name pronunciations and share some thoughts and feelings I had while I developed my course.
“Reconcile” in this podcast episode means, “to accept something unpleasant.”
Making the right choices can be hard. I had to make some tough choices when I created my drug name pronunciation course, including getting my information from the right sources.
Examples of differences I had to reconcile while building my pronunciation course.
- Identical spelling does not mean identical pronunciation. Ex: hydroxyzine and hydroxychloroquine. Ex: oxytocin, oxycodone, and oxybutynin. You have to look at the written pronunciation from the USP Dictionary Online, not the spelling of the drug name. Drug names are not normal English words. They can’t be sounded out. Knowing where to separate the drug name into syllables and how to pronounce those syllables are explained in the USP Dictionary Online.
- I used pronunciations established by those who name brand and generic drugs in the US. Drug names need to be pronounced a certain way so we are all on the same page with safety in mind.
3. I propose official [brand and generic] drug name pronunciations become available for free for everyone to easily access.
4. I propose institutions of higher learning teach drug name pronunciations. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Professors have an opportunity to teach students how to pronounce drug names when they are young, so they will be able to do it for their entire careers.
5. I propose everyone vet their sources carefully. Don’t let mispronouncing drug names become a bad habit.
I will return to my regular schedule of releasing one episode each Friday, starting December 4.
Reconciling the difference between living at their goal weight with proper diet and exercise on a special TV show set with a supportive trainer and returning to “the real world” takes effort. That’s why contestants often relapse. Those contestants slip into survival mode. They do what they have to do to survive. I’m sure they find a happy medium between the perfect performance we saw on TV and the obese person we saw on day one. I’m not judging. I’m just saying that reconciling differences is real. TV Shows like the biggest loser are a great example because the transformation is physical. We can see someone lose weight as they reconcile differences with diet and exercise. They accept their unpleasant reality and move forward because they want to win the
It is sometimes difficult to reconcile science and religion.
It's difficult to reconcile such different points of view.
How can you reconcile your fur coat and/with your love of animals?
How can there be so many different pronunciations?
We learn things wrong, then continue to say them wrong out of habit.
- Oxy vs. oxi
- Hydroxy vs hydroxi
- $348 paywall
- Not taught in schools
- People accept what they see on the internet instead of looking into the root of the drug. Why wouldn’t you go to the people who named the drug to learn how to pronounce it?
- I would like to see some standardization: medication guides, info on the internet, what’s put out by pharmacies in leaflets
- I would like there to be a comprehensive database for drug name pronunciations, and I would like to be part of the voiceover team for the project!
There is a $348 pay wall between the right answers, and people want free. People are impatient, and they want whatever is available NOW. The people who put out the dictionary should also put out a pronunciation service.
People want a pharmacology lesson, but really they also need a pronunciation lesson.