BMJ 1996;312:52-53 (6 January)

Letters

In Finland anticoagulant treatment is monitored by general practitioners

EDITOR,--C M Sudlow and colleagues emphasise the importance of an understanding of "the whole package of care" when new research evidence concerning the effect of anticoagulant treatment in preventing strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation is applied to everyday work.1 In their commentary on the article K G Sweeney and colleagues are worried about complications of the treatment and about underanticoagulation.1 2

In Finland anticoagulant treatment is monitored by general practitioners in primary health care. In some cases they also start the treatment. The country thus has a system that Sweeney et al and Pell et al might view as ideal.2 3

In 1992 we carried out a study of the prevalence of anticoagulant treatment in Finland. We also recorded the main and secondary indications for anticoagulant treatment and the most recent measurement of the prothrombin time. Among the total population of 182 091 patients in eight ordinary health centres we found . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

How To Do It: Service provision and use of anticoagulants in atrial fibrillation
C M Sudlow, H Rodgers, R A Kenny, and R G Thomson
BMJ 1995 311: 558-560. [Extract] [Full Text]

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