[Evaluation of an education program for patients taking oral anticoagulants: Experience of the GRANTED network in Isère]

Abstract

Background: The guidelines for good clinical practices issued by the French Agency for Health and Drug Safety and the Superior Health Authority are designed to improve management of oral anticoagulants which can be an important source of iatrogenic morbidity. These guidelines have focused on the need for special education. The GRANTED network in Isère developed an education program for patients taking oral anticoagulants.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate quantitatively the therapeutic education of these patients taking oral anticoagulation, irrespective of their risk factor(s).

Patients and methods: This was a retrospective analysis of 100 randomly selected patients taking oral anticoagulants for at least three months who participated in the GRANTED education program in 2007. The evaluation criterion was the number of hemorrhagic and/or thromboembolic events.

Results: Among the 97 patients contacted, 3.1% had a serious hemorrhagic event and 1.03% a recurrent thromboembolic event.

Conclusions: The quality of a scientific study depends on the quality of the methodology, leading to a preference for prospective studies. It would nevertheless be pertinent to determine whether or not official management recommendations are applied correctly in real life conditions. We report a first evaluation of a therapeutic education program designed for patients taking oral anticoagulants. The education program within the GRANTED network has enabled a reduction in the iatrogenic morbidity related to oral anticoagulation despite the selection bias of the probably high-risk population enrolled in the GRANTED network.