Education and debate

How To Do It: Service provision and use of anticoagulants in atrial fibrillation

^a Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology and Public Health, Medical School, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH

Correspondence to: Dr Sudlow.

Several large trials have shown that the risk of stroke in patients with non-valvar atrial fibrillation is reduced by treatment with warfarin. Implementing this research evidence requires not only an understanding of the trials' results and of the changes that they imply for clinicians' treatment decisions but also an appreciation of the organisation, quantity, and quality of services required to support these changes. Understanding of these implications is crucial for developing services that allow changes in practice to produce reductions in stroke incidence while minimising the risks of treatment. This article considers the developments in service provision that will probably be required to support the changes in clinical practice suggested by the trials' results. These services . . . [Full text of this article]

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