Anticoagulation clinics: the Italian experience

The clinical quality of oral anticoagulant therapy (OAT) depends on how successful physicians and patients are in achieving and maintaining levels of anticoagulation capable of preventing thromboembolic events without increasing the risk of hemorrhagic complications. Concerning the patient, education and compliance are the major problems. As for the physician, on the other hand, the management of patients receiving OAT is a complex task that requires frequent laboratory testing, dosage regulation, prompt diagnosis and treatment of thromboembolic and hemorrhagic events. It requires educated and skilled personnel and a well-organized framework of services. Anticoagulation clinics, which provide patient education, close monitoring of prothrombin time and continuous clinical surveillance, may help in improving the overall quality of OAT.

The authors have been working in this field contributing, original papers. In addition, the material examined in this article includes articles published in the journals covered by the Science Citation Index and Medline.

The concept of a coordinated network of medical services specifically devoted to the control of OAT was developed in the Netherlands following the model created by the late Professor Jordan, who in 1949 founded the first thrombosis center at the University of Utrecht. Many other anticoagulant clinics were organized on, a voluntary basis in the following decades in the Netherlands. The Dutch Federation of Thrombosis Centers was founded in 1971 and each affiliated Center is formally recognized and supported by the central Government. Today, there is a nation-wide system of regionally centralized anticoagulant control for outpatients and home patients that counts approximately 70 anticoagulant clinics (thrombosis centers), covering more than 90% of the country. Similar global approaches to the management of patients receiving OAT were proposed in other countries. In the 1950's, a group of internists and surgeons at the University of Michigan, USA, developed a unit specifically devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of thromboembolic disease, and proposed common strategies, teaching and research programs. In 1959, Sevitt and Gallagher were the first to propose a formal recognition of an anticoagulant unit in Great Britain. Finally, the Italian Federation of Centers for the Surveillance of Anticoagulant (FCSA) therapies was founded in 1989. Nowadays, Italian anticoagulation clinics operating in the framework of the FCSA are still voluntary organizations which provide a specific medical service by continuously reorganizing the personnel, structures and resources available to meet increasing demands. Since OAT has a profound social impact, its control should not be left to the good will of dedicated people, but should instead represent a specific task of the public health system. The achievement of a formal recognition of federated centers is essential for their growth, but the unavoidable increase of the expenses needed to support anticoagulation clinics is difficult to bear in a public care system which is currently facing a substantial reduction of financial resources. In a fixed health care budget, a redistribution of existing resources is the only possible solution, but to achieve this goal, public authorities have to be convinced that the management of OAT in specific anticoagulation clinics is cost-effective. A more accurate estimate of costs is needed and should be performed by the FCSA. Finally, the FCSA should strengthen its contacts with patient organizations and other scientific associations in order to develop common action strategies for improving the quality of OAT.