How equivalent is “equivalent”?
Not very. No flourescent tube emits all of the frequencies found in incandescence. If a pigment reflects a lot of energy at a certain frequency, and a flourescent tube emits none at that frequency, then a colour requiring that frequency may look bright beneath an incandescent lamp but dark under a fluorescent tube. That said, some flourescent lamps are used by the graphic-arts industry for comparing colours. These have been especially designed for the purpose, to come close to incandescence. Although they aren’t perfect, they are more practical than incandescent lamps would be, because the graphic-arts standard for judging colour approximates sunlight, and incandescent lamps that approximate sunlight are hot and short-lived.
More and more pharmaceutical products are becoming available under the generic designation as patents for their brand-name counterparts expire. Although some generic products are exact duplicates of the brand-name drug, others may vary with regard to their inactive ingredients or in other ways. Sometimes these allowable variations in product formulation are clinically significant for certain individuals. Therefore it is important for both the prescriber and the dispenser of medication to recognize potential differences in marketed products so that a truly equivalent preparation can be provided when a generic substitution is made. This article chronicles a case in which miscommunication and noncommunication led to the suboptimal treatment of a skin disease with a generic “equivalent.” Suggestions are made for improving interprofessional communication so that the patient’s needs are served to the maximum degree.
