How ContextRx cases are verified

Every case on ContextRx was read and confirmed by a person before it was published. We publish only correctly spelled words that change the meaning of a high-stakes line, and we name the company class, never the company.

What counts as a contextual word error

A contextual word error is a real word, spelled correctly, that is wrong for its sentence. For us to call it one, three things have to be true:

• It's a real word. Spellcheck would pass it.
• It changes the meaning. The line now says something it shouldn't, or stops saying something it must.
• The intended word is clear. The rest of the line makes plain what belonged there.

A heart-risk warning that said "attach" where it needed "attack" meets all three. FDA DailyMed NSAID warning said "attach" instead of "attack"

What we leave out

• Misspellings. Those are real errors, but they aren't this class, and other checks catch them.
• Style and preference. Wording we'd write differently isn't wrong.
• Harmless slips. If the meaning survives, we don't publish it.
• Low-stakes lines. We focus on warnings, directions, indications and first aid, where a flipped meaning can change what someone does.

What human-verified means

A person read the line in context on the published label and confirmed both the error and the intended word. Software may help surface candidates. A person decides what is and isn't a case, and nothing is published on a machine's say-so.

How we anonymize

• We name the company class only, for example a US generics labeler.
• We don't name products, brands or ingredients where they would point to the label.
• We don't publish label IDs or link to the source label.
• We quote the wrong word and the right word, and paraphrase the rest, so the label can't be looked up from our text.

Why we don't name companies

The point is the failure class, not blame. These slips happen across the industry, at big companies and small ones, and they get past careful teams because the tools in the stack aren't asked about meaning. Naming a company would make a case about that company. We want it to be about the check.

Corrections and contact

If you think a case is wrong, or you're the labeler and want to tell us something, contact us through the About page. We read every message and correct cases that need it.

Independence

ContextRx is an independent research project. It isn't affiliated with FDA, the National Library of Medicine, any drug company or any employer.

FAQ

More on contextual errors in FDA DailyMed labels.