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Welcome to the September edition of the
DAWN AC
Anticoagulation Software E-Newsletter for 2009.
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Recovery Measures When
DAWN Goes
Down |
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Imagine if you lost all your anticoagulation
data by accident or through a fault in the
computer hardware! Regular back ups of
your data to another storage device is
absolutely essential. Have more than one
line of defence…three lines would be ideal.
If you depend on a third party to do this for you e.g.
your IT or IS department, please check with them
periodically that the backups are being done.
If an incident occurs which
results in users not being able to access the DAWN system at
all, do you have a 'plan B' in place to continue operating,
e.g, a paper system?
Recovery documents within the DAWN website may be able to help
your IT department get you back up and running again. These
can be particularly useful if the system goes down outside of
the DAWN support hours (Monday to Friday, from 9:00am to
5:30pm UK time, excluding public holidays).
The links
to the recovery documents are as follows:
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DAWN AC UK User Group 2009 |
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We are holding our annual DAWN AC User Group on
the 12th and 13th of October this year at the historic Old
England Hotel on the edge of the beautiful lake Windermere.
The User Group, as many of you know, offers the chance for
Health Care Professionals to share ideas and learn alternative
methods of best practice within Anticoagulation therapy, as well
as the day being informative and beneficial.
We are still keen to hear from those of you who would like to
give a short talk at the User Group Meeting, we are offering a
‘speaker’s package’ where there will be a £100 reduction in
the meeting fee and we also help with your presentation
preparation. In response to user requests, we invite you to
share how you use DAWN AC in different settings eg laboratory
based, community based with POC, pharmacist managed. In
addition, we would be interested in your experiences with
Version 7. If you are interested in speaking at our user group
then please contact us by replying to this email.
The provisional list of speakers we have so far
is as follows:
"To Stop Or Not To Stop Anticoagulants, That Is The
Question"
Dr Jenny
Voke, Luton and Dunstable Hospital
"DAWN v7 In The Anticoagulation Clinic In South
Western Denmark"
Dr Pernille Tandrup Nielsen
and Dr Bodil Leed, Esbjerg, Denmark
"Product Update"
4S Staff
"Update On The New Oral Anticoagulant Drugs"
Dr Eric
Watts, Consultant Haematologist, Basildon Hospital
"The Impact of Version 7 On Our Patients Experience"
Andrew Barnes, Newark Hospital
"GPwSI (General Practitioner With A Specialist
Interest) In Anticoagulation"
Dr Jenny Voke, Luton and Dunstable Hospital
"Diagnosing DVT in
Salford - Protocols and Problems"
Dr
Kerstin Hogg, Salford Royal Infirmary
"Using DAWN AC To Facilitate A Quality Improvement
Project"
Lisa Vaughn, Wenatchee Valley Clinic,
USA
"Update On Benchmarking And Performance Analysis"
4S Staff
Plus The Following Topical Product Use Workshops:
- How to access the audit trail / who did what,
where and when?
- Integrated Hold Monitor
- Adjusting Clinic Capacity
- User Profiles Management
- NHS Number DSCN Compliance and DAWN AC
More speakers are anticipated!
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DAWN USA User Group 2009 -
Thank You! |
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The North American User Group this year was a fantastic
meeting! All of the talks given were brilliant, and so we
would like to give a special thanks to all the speakers who
took part.
We would also like to thank everyone at Massachusetts General
Hospital who ensured that the meeting ran smoothly and
organised this years event so well.
The user group talk slides and write ups will be available in
the coming weeks on the Dawn AC website ( http://www.4s-dawn.com/dawnac).
We look forward to seeing you all at next years' meeting!
Anyone who is interested in hosting the meeting next year can
contact us by replying to this email.
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NEW DAWN Module for Diabetes |
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DAWN Clinical Framework now has a module for managing
Diabetes clinics. It helps track blood glucose, blood
pressure and blood cholesterol levels (the ABC (A1c, blood
pressure, cholesterol) values) as well as other relevant
blood tests.
The tracking of appointments to check the condition of feet
and eyes is easily handled by the DAWN Reminders and Lists
views to ensure follow-up.
The DAWN trends and alerting engine scans all blood results
for trends and abnormal results. Reporting against National
goals for these tracked values is also provided.
If you are interested in this module or know of anyone who
is then please reply to this email.
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DAWN
Clinical Framework - Alerts To Prevent VTE In Hospital And
On Discharge |
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DAWN Clinical Framework could readily provide a system to help
improve the prevention of VTE in patients at your hospital.
Over 25,000 patients die each year in UK hospitals (UK
population is around 60 million) as a result of VTE.
On admission to hospital, an admissions HL7 message can be
sent to DAWN, and a risk assessment can then be carried out
using the DAWN questionnaire module, and suitable electronic
alerts sent to the appropriate clinicians to ensure that the
appropriate prophylaxis method is applied.
A randomised trial published in the New England Journal of
Medicine (2005;352:969) indicated that an electronic alert
reduced the risk of symptomatic DVT or PE at 90 days by 41%
(p=0.001). There was no increase in the rate of major or minor
bleeding at 30 days in the intervention group.
A further study (Circulation 2009;119:2196) demonstrated that
patients whose
physicians were alerted were more than twice as likely to
receive VTE prophylaxis
as the controls. The symptomatic VTE rate was slightly lower
but not statistically
significant. The rate of bleeding at 30 days was similiar.
Although emphasis is placed on the prevention of in-hospital
prophylaxis, a recent study (Internal Med 2007;167:471)
demonstrated that 74% of patients devloped VTE as an
outpatient. This risk persists. Again, DAWN could provide
alerts on discharge based on selected criteria to the
responsible post discharge physician.
Anyone interested in using DAWN Clinical Framework to provide
alerts to prevent VTE, please reply to this email.
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Dabigatran RE-LY Study - A
Study To Rely On? |
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Study results published in the New England Journal of Medicine
recently have revealed that patients taking dabigatran are as
effectively managed and have a lower risk of major hemmorhage
than patients taking warfarin.
The study looked at over 18,000 patients from 951 medical
centres across 44 countries. Patients were randomly prescribed
either 110mg of dabigatran, 150mg of dabigatran, or 1,3 or 5mg
of warfarin. Although dabigatran was found to give a lower
risk of hemmorhage than warfarin, there was a slightly
increased risk of nonhemmorhagic instances.
Internist Brian. F. Gage, MD, MSc, from the Washington
University School of Medicine commented, "because of
dabigatran’s twice-daily dosing and greater risk of
nonhemorrhagic side effects, patients already taking warfarin
with excellent INR control have little to gain by switching to
dabigatran".
"In contrast, many other patients who have atrial fibrillation
and at least one additional risk factor for stroke could
benefit from dabigatran."
To read more of this article, please follow the link below:
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New Drug Based On Tick
Saliva Created |
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A new drug which uses a man-made version of an anti-clotting
agent found in ticks from Central America and Africa has been
developed.
The drug, which makers have named Variegin, has performed well
in initial tests, and it is hoped that human clinical trials
will begin soon.
Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation,
Professor Jeremy Pearson, commented, "Scientists often take
lessons from nature in the development of new medicines. Our
own researchers have worked with snake venom in the past to
reveal clues about blood clotting.
We look forward to seeing the results of clinical tests with
Variegin."
To read more of this article, please follow the link below:
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Women With Atrial
Fibrillation At Higher Risk Than Men |
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A review of studies and literature carried out by healthcare
professionals at Rush University Medical Center recently has
revealed that although more men develop atrail fibrillation
than women, women with AF have a higher risk of stroke and
symptomatic attacks.
The findings are due to be published in the September issue of
Gender Medicine.
Cardiologist Dr. Annabelle Volgman, medical director of the
Heart Center for women at Rush University Medical Center,
commented, "Women are at higher risk of atrial
fibrillation-related stroke than men and are more likely to
live with stroke-related disability which can significantly
lower quality of life."
"We reviewed past studies addressing gender differences in
atrial fibrillation over a 20 year period in order to pinpoint
the gender differences for women versus men with atrial
fibrillation. As a result, we were able to determine the most
rational, safe and effective gender-specific approach to
therapy for women."
To read more of this article, pease follow the link below:
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Man With DVT Loses Legs After
Anti-Clotting Injections Missed |
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 An
elderly man needed to have both his legs amputated after a
nurse failed to give him the anti-clotting injections he
needed to treat DVT.
The nurse claimed to have given the man five injections, but
it was ruled by the Nursing and Midwifery Council that she had
failed to give two of these injections after unused syringes
were found in a clinical waste bin. The man was later admitted
to hospital after one of his feet turned blue and had both of
his legs amputated.
The decision as to whether the nurse should be struck off
is currently being considered.
To read more of this article, please follow the link below:
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