Working to reduce medical errors and improve safety for people receiving health care in Washington.

What is a Medicine?

A medicine is any substance that is meant to change the way your body deals with an illness or injury, or to maintain your health and well-being, no matter where you get the substance. Medicine is used to treat or prevent illness, provide relief from symptoms, or improve quality of life.

Medicines come in many forms:

Pills	Creams	Liquids	Lotions, creams or ointments	Inhalers
Injections	Drops	Herbs	Suppositories	Vitamins

Where Do You Get Medicines?

You get some medicines from a pharmacist, with a prescription given to you by a doctor, dentist, or other healthcare provider. You get other medicines without a prescription from the pharmacist, naturopath, or herbalist, or at the drug store, supermarket, health food store, or on the Internet. Herbal medicines, vitamins, minerals, and nutritional supplements are all medicines; sometimes they are called complementary or alternative medicines.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration provides consumers with a list of 6 Tips to Avoid Medication Mistakes on their website, including #6 -- Keep a list of all your medications!


Click here to make your medicine list.	Click here to return to the main page.