The metric system may be just what’s needed to help patients take the correct dose. The New York Times reports that researchers found that patients were more accurate when doling out medication measured in milliliters as opposed to teaspoons or tablespoons.
The Times notes that professional associations have already started encouraging this unit of measure, which may also require outfitting households with tools to gauge amounts using the metric system.
NYU professor Alan Mendelsohn tells the Times that problems with tablespoon and teaspoon measurements include lack of accuracy as well as patient confusion, because the abbreviations—tbspn and tsp—are easy to mix up, whereas a milliliter has one abbreviation, mL.
