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Patient Satisfaction Up With Pharmacist-Managed Warfarin Tx

But no significant improvement in mortality, prevention of bleeding, thrombosis events

TUESDAY, Oct. 4, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Pharmacist-managed warfarin anticoagulation therapy is associated with improved patient satisfaction, although the benefits in terms of control, safety, and mortality are unclear, according to a review published online Sept. 28 in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics.

S. Zhou, M.Pharm., from the Peking University First Hospital in Beijing, and colleagues conducted a systematic review to compare the effectiveness of pharmacist-managed anticoagulation control of warfarin with other models. Data were included from eight randomized controlled trials with a total of 1,493 patients.

The researchers observed a significant difference for satisfaction between pharmacist-managed care and other models (mean difference [MD], 0.41; 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.01 to 0.81; P = 0.04), and in the percentage of time within the standard therapeutic range (MD, 3.66; 95 percent CI, 2.20 to 5.11; P < 0.00001). There was no significant improvement in the percentage of time within the expanded therapeutic range (MD, 2.85; 95 percent CI, −0.56 to 6.26; P = 0.10), mortality (odds ratio, 0.97; 95 percent CI, 0.44 to 2.11; P = 0.09), the prevention of bleeding events (odds ratio, 0.89; 95 percent CI, 0.56 to 1.44; P = 0.64), and thrombosis events (odds ratio, 0.81; 95 percent CI, 0.34 to 1.92; P = 0.64) for the pharmacist-managed group.

“Compared with other models, the superiority of pharmacist-managed warfarin anticoagulation needs to be further evaluated and validated in future research,” the authors write.

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