Pharmacy

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Drug Store, Apothecary, Chemist

Category

Commercial Facilities, Safety, Health Care, Health Services, Travel

Message / Function

For notice in general and to indicate the location of a pharmacy

	Source	Description
	Eco-Mo Foundation	Bottle with cross to indicate medical care plus capsules in blister pack
	EJP	Bottle with cross to indicate medical care plus capsules in blister pack
	Schiphol	Bottle with cross to indicate medical care plus capsules and pills
	ISO 7001	Bottle with stopper and pills, cross to indicate medical care
	Tern	Bottle with stopper and pills, cross to indicate medical care
	BS 8501:2002	Cross and bottle with pills
	CNIS	Cross and bottle with pills
	Olmstead	Bottle with pills and capsules
	D'source	Pills and capsules
	ULOU	Pills and capsule
	Erco	Mortar, pestle, and cross
	KSA	Cross plus mortar and pestle
	Lee	Mortar with cross plus pestle
	TC	Mortar and pestle
	IATA	Mortar with ℞ medical prescription symbol and pestle, bottle with cross
	Hablamos Juntos	Bottle with ℞ medical prescription symbol
	Olmstead	℞ medical prescription symbol
	Picto'grafics	℞ medical prescription symbol
	Wikipedia	Red cross with ℞ medical prescription symbol
	UIC 413	Aesculapian snake and chalice within an outline cross
	UIC 413 b	Aesculapian snake and chalice within an outline cross
	Wikipedia	Green cross with Aesculapian snake and scales
	CNIS	Cross and tuber with roots
	Olmstead	Two bottles and toothbrush
	CHBA	Face above hands holding bottel and spoon
	Bolivia	Human figure behind desk, cabinet on the right
	Wikipedia	Green cross on white ground within circle
	Wikipedia	Green cross
	Galicia	Green cross pattée
	Wikipedia	Red cross with white cross
	Stadt Wien	Bowl on a column and a snake form the letter A
	DAM	Gothic letter A with chalice and Aesculapian snake

Discussion

The collection shown above is only a small selection of the wide variety of pictograms, symbols and logos used all over the world to indicate the location of a pharmacy. Many are only known locally, which limits their usefulness. No single visual stereotype can be identified.

From research findings available it can be summarized:

Country or region specific symbols and logos, as displayed at the bottom of the table above, reach excellent scores in the originating regions (e.g. Brugger, 1995: 85 % correct responses for the variant marked Stadt Wien in Austria), but comprehension is insufficient from a cross-cultural point of view. This is especially true if they include letters or symbols that refer to a specific language.
Mortar and pestle are outdated and comprehension is limited in regions, where this representation or derived pictograms are not commonly used (Olmstead, 1999, Lee et al., 2014). As most pharmaceutical preparations are not made in local pharmacies any longer, these tools are not associated well enough with Pharmacy to convey the intended message.
The common abbreviation ℞, even if presented as label on a bottle like in the pictogram tagged Hablamos Juntos above, works only in a limited number of countries like the US, as this symbol is not used and well understood worldwide (Olmstead, 1999, Hashim et al., 2014, Lee et al., 2014, Zender & Cassedy, 2014).
The Aesculapian snake and chalice, with cross is often associated with pharmacy, but also with first aid and other medical services (Brugger, 1995).
The green cross is too abstract and probably works well only for persons from countries where this symbol is generally used to indicate a pharmacy.
More complex pictograms or illustrations like the last examples marked as Olmstead and CHBA seem insufficient and did not reach acceptable scores (Olmstead, 1999).
Displaying a bottle with a cross or a corresponding symbol to indicate medical care plus pills or capsules seem to be the least culture dependent solution (Brugger, 2000), even though the symbol indicating medical care can also be misleading. Results also indicated the importance of displaying pills or capsules in such a way that these elements can be clearly identified (Brugger, 1996). Japanese Comprehension Test results for the pictogram variant labeled as Eco-Mo Foundation indicate an acceptable level of performance with a comprehension score of 72.2 (Eco-Mo Foundation, 2001).

Recommendations

PI CF 007 Pharmacy

Based on data known, we recommend the use of pictograms similar to PI CF 007 of ISO 7001, Tern Pictogram TS0826 Pharmacy, or the Pharmacy pictogram of the Eco-Mo Foundation.

The cross to indicate medical care may be substituted with another symbol appropriate to the culture of the using country.

Tests of pictograms of referent Pharmacy

Brugger: Ch. (1995): ÖBB / ON Testserie 1995, Teil 2 Verständnisschätzungen nach ISO 9186. Report to ÖBB GD 02 (Austrian Railways) dated February 1995, Vienna.

Brugger, Ch. (1995): Verständnistest 1995 - Im Auftrag der ÖBB und des ON - FNA 133. Vienna, November 1995.

Brugger: Ch. (1996): Verständnistest UIC Kodex Merkblatt 413. Report to ÖBB GD 02 (Austrian Railways), Vienna, March 1996.

Brugger: Ch. (1999): Verständnisschätzungen - Projekt 1999. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute dated December 1999.

Brugger: Ch. (2000): Verständlichkeitstest ON 2000. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute (ON) dated November 2000, Vienna.

Eco-Mo Foundation (2001): Test data of public information symbols in Japan - Procedure for the testing of public information symbols by the Study Committee. ISO: ISO/TC 145/SC 1 N 329.

Hashim, M. J., Alkaabi, M. S., & Bharwani, S. (2014): Interpretation of way-finding healthcare symbols by a multicultural population: navigation signage design for global health. Applied ergonomics, 45(3), 503–509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2013.07.002

Lee, S., Dazkir, S. S., Paik, H. S., & Coskun, A. (2014). Comprehensibility of universal healthcare symbols for wayfinding in healthcare facilities. Applied Ergonomics, 45(4), 878-885. doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2013.11.003

Olmstead, W.T. (1999): The usability of symbols for health care facilities: the effect of culture, gender and age. In: Zwaga, H., Boersema, T. & Hoonhout, H. (Eds.): Visual information for everyday use. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Zender, M., & Cassedy, A.E. (2014): (Mis)understanding: Icon Comprehension in Different Cultural Contexts. Visible Language, 48, 69.

Zou C., Wang G. (2019) Comparative Analysis Comprehensibility of Healthcare Symbols Between USA and China. In: Rau PL. (eds) Cross-Cultural Design. Methods, Tools and User Experience. HCII 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11576. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007