A prescription is written quickly, by someone who writes dozens a day, for a pharmacist rather than for you. It is frequently the least readable document in healthcare and the one with the most immediate consequences if misunderstood.
Each line is its own thing
We do not summarise a prescription. We take it apart. Every medicine on the page is listed separately, with what is actually written beside it: the name as written, the strength as written, the form, and the instruction.
Separating them matters because the questions are per-medicine. People rarely want to know about “the prescription”. They want to know what the third one is for and why it is twice a day when the others are once.
What is written, and what it means
Two different things, kept visibly apart. What is written is read off the page. What a medicine is comes from its own labelling — never invented, and never extended into advice about whether you personally should be taking it.
When the handwriting defeats it
Sometimes a line genuinely cannot be read with confidence. We say which line, rather than producing a plausible medicine name. A confidently wrong drug name on a prescription is among the most dangerous outputs a system like this could produce, so the honest failure is the designed one.
What we never do
- Suggest a medicine, a substitute or a dose.
- Tell you to stop, start or change anything.
- Comment on whether the prescription is appropriate for you.
The prescription is a clinical decision that has already been made by someone accountable for it. Our job is to make it legible, not to second-guess it.
This article explains how our technology works. It is health information, not medical advice.