• mediOchre
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      5 months ago

      i guess the p and l are the important bits and the rest can just be inferred, since paracetamol is very commonly used and they’d get tired writing it in detail every time. other more specialized drugs with p___l (or close to it) as its name would have more squiggles i assume.

      • FrenziedFelidFanatic@yiffit.net
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        5 months ago

        It’s (shorthand)[teeline.online]. It says “prc(t)ml” with the p being in the obvious spot (though it should be just a downward line), the r is the diagonal line after it, the c is the little curl, the t should be more pronounced, but it should be a horizontal line slightly above the rest, the m is a concave-down swoosh, and the l is the final curl. No vowels b/c they’re largely redundant.

    • ryathal
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      5 months ago

      It’s a super common prescription and most doctors probably couldn’t spell it offhand. Combined with dosing info it would be more obvious. Also if they do happen to be wrong it’s unlikely to actually cause harm with acetaminophen/paracetamol.

      Edit: another benefit is disguising to a patient that demands something to take. Essentially a placebo.

      • spankinspinach
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        5 months ago

        In addition, there’s a psychological phenomenon where our brains only need the first and last letter of a word in the right place, and all the right letters in between in any order, to suss out a word. Our familiarity with a lngaauge will put it together, so presumably the same is true for healthcare providers’ common words.

        Note: I included an example of this in my comment

        • danc4498@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          In adtidion, trehe’s a pshyocloigal pheonmneon where our bairns olny need the fsrit and lsat lteter of a word in the rghit pclae, and all the rghit ltertes in bteewen in any oedrr, to suss out a word. Our faiilamirty with a lagnuage wlil put it toehgter, so pseurambly the smae is treu for haehtlcare pvoerdirs’ cmmoon wdros.

          FTFY… I read this just as fast as the original.

        • thelasttoot@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Your e-----------e d-----t w----k w-----------t the c-----------t of the l---------s i-----------------n.

          If they’re commonly used words the scribbles end up becoming a form of shorthand that doctors can recognize, but they’re meaningless to anyone who isn’t already familiar with them.

        • PlexSheep@infosec.pub
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          5 months ago

          Not sure but I think you mean chunking. When you know a word you don’t need to read all letters by themselves but know roughly what the word looks like as a whole, so you can read it faster. This also inrotrozutes a failure rate of course, but works pretty well.

        • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 months ago

          I love that effect, but sometimes it can fail. For example:

          Our familiarity with lineage will…

          Is how my stupid ass brain read it first and I knew what was up