An evaluation of near-patient testing of anticoagulant control in general practice

This paper aims to compare anticoagulant management in secondary care for the year prior to the introduction of near-patient testing in a general practice, and in the subsequent year after it was introduced.

This paper is a retrospective, paired before-after study. Details of test results in the two-year-long periods on the 46 patients who met the inclusion criteria were collected and analysed pairwise.

Despite an increase in the frequency of testing this set of patients were controlled as well in general practice as they had been with a secondary-care service, and better that in a number of studies in the literature.

This research reviews a recently introduced service at a single centre. Further research of patient satisfaction and adverse events in a multi-centre longer-term trial are desirable.

Technology now allows the increasing amount of individuals on anticoagualtion to be controlled with near-patient testing in general practice. This study shows that satisfactory control can be maintained in patients who transfer from a secondary care-based to a primary care-based service.

This paper demonstrates that a single general practice can provide a high quality anticoagulant service using near-patient testing and computer-based decision support. This adds to the already available evidence and will hopefully encourage other practices to adopt the same.