A study conducted in Mangaluru has challenged the long-standing belief that doctors write illegibly only when prescribing medicines. The research, led by Saritha D’Souza, head of the postgraduate department of criminology and forensic sciences, along with her student Nashwa Iqbal, examined whether doctors alter their handwriting style while writing prescriptions compared to their regular handwriting.
Key Findings of the Research
Saritha told TOI that despite the common perception about unreadable prescriptions, the differences between prescription writing and normal handwriting were minimal. In most cases, similarities outweighed variations. The study sought to determine whether doctors could still be identified through their handwriting despite the tendency to scribble prescriptions that are often difficult to read.
Forensic Science Principles Applied
According to forensic science, handwriting analysis is used to identify individuals based on class and individual characteristics. Class characteristics include general features such as size, shape, and style of writing, while individual characteristics help determine whether a person has attempted to disguise their handwriting from its natural style. The researchers emphasized that even when writing prescriptions, doctors leave behind certain individual characteristics that can help identify the writer.
Methodology and Sample
The study was conducted last year and initially presented by Nashwa as her dissertation. After six months of further research and refinement, it was published in a peer-reviewed journal. The overall research took more than a year. The researchers studied 50 male and female doctors from Mangaluru, collecting three prescription samples and three exemplar handwriting samples from each.
Characteristics Analyzed
The class characteristics analyzed included size, spacing, slant, speed, skill, line quality, alignment, and pen pressure. Individual characteristics studied included initial and terminal strokes, number of loops, and the crossbar formation of the letter 't'.
Results and Conclusions
The findings showed that 100% of doctors displayed similar spacing between letters, while 90% showed similar pen pressure in both prescription and exemplar writings. At the same time, 50% showed variations in slant and 46% in alignment. The researchers concluded that significant similarities existed in both class and individual characteristics between doctors' prescription writings and their regular handwriting, indicating that they generally retain consistent handwriting traits in both forms of writing.
This study provides valuable insights for forensic science, suggesting that even in prescription writing, doctors' handwriting retains enough individual characteristics for identification purposes.
