Is a doctor's handwriting really so bad? Yes, say Ronan Lyons and colleagues based on their study of the handwriting of 92 healthworkers in the Swansea area, published in this week's BMJ. The authors found that even when asked to write a neatly as possible, doctors produce handwriting that is worse than that of other health professions. However, the study also found that legibility was confined to letters of the alphabet rather than numbers which perhaps indicates the importance attached by doctors to the legibility of drug doses.

Contact:

Ronan Lyons, Consultant, Department of Public Health, Iechyd, Morgannwg Health, Swansea