Digital Pharma: Roche launches online warfarin training for patients
pharmafile | May 27, 2011 | News story | Medical Communications | Digital Pharma blog, Roche, anticoagulant, warfarin
Roche has launched an online training tool to help UK patients on long-term warfarin learn about anticoagulation self-monitoring.
The CoaguChek Academy aims to improve patients’ quality of life and reduce the amount of training needed from health care professionals.
Allison Rossiter, Director of Point of Care at Roche, said: “Making this educational tool available to patients throughout the UK will help promote the importance of self-testing whilst at the same time deliver tangible benefits to patients and clinicians.”
Roche, which manufactures the CoaguChek XS meter, says its free online resource offers accessible information about self-monitoring for patients and can be used before a face-to-face appointment with a healthcare professional.
The CoaguChek Academy includes an introduction to anticoagulation, INR testing and using the CoaguChek XS meter.
The centerpiece of the e-learning tool is a training module which takes approximately 50 minutes to complete and on successful completion patients receive a certificate to show they have understood the information.
Although a new wave of drugs, led by Boehringer Ingelheim’s Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate) and Bayer’s Xarelto (rivaroxaban), is now reaching the market, for now warfarin remains the standard anticoagulation treatment.
Patients on warfarin require regulator monitoring, using in a hospital, doctor’s surgery or pharmacy, and face increased risks of complications if their international normalised ratio (INR) levels are not regulated properly.
Self-monitoring has been shown to significantly improve outcomes for patients, including reducing the bleeding associated with warfarin, and it is estimated up to 50% of patients taking long-term warfarin therapy could be eligible to self-test.
Steve Davidson, chairman of the Clinical Leaders of Thrombosis (CLOT), a special interest group of healthcare professionals working in haemostasis and thrombosis, said the CoaguChek Academy could help improve patient confidence to take on self-monitoring.
“It means that when patients come for face-to-face training, they are already informed about their condition and what they should be looking out for,” he added.
The Academy is a global initiative from Roche and its UK launch sees it join versions meant for patients in Norway and Ireland.
Dominic Tyer is web editor for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and the author of the Digital Pharma blog He can be contacted via email, Twitter or LinkedIn.
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