DAWN AC Anticoagulation Software - Why Computer Aided Dosing is so Important

Anticoagulation Software

Why Computer Aided Dosing

is so Important ?

There are four main reasons why computer aided dosing is so important.

“Experienced medical staff show natural increased caution in dosing patients at a higher INR range is not shared by the Dawn AC computer software.” (CHEST/119/1/Jan 2000 32S -American College of Chest Physicians).
Again, medical staff caution often means that patients run on the lower end of ranges and below. The Dawn AC computer system minimises this but at the same time does not increase the number of INR’s above range This is particularly so for stabilisation patients i.e. on therapy from week 3 to 22 (See Tables 1 & 2 Below)
Computer aided dosing achieves better levels of control with less dose changes. This minimises risk as every time a patient changes dose, there is scope for an error and the wrong dose is taken.( See Table 1 Below).
Computer assisted dosing also allows Standardisation of Care across all healthcare professional’s managing patients within an organisation. Standardisation is the first step to improving the whole Quality of Care. Dawn AC allows you to set your own dosing rules, if required. We also offer benchmarking to help achieve best practice

Tables extracted from the The Lancet Vol 352 November 1998

Table 1 : For all therapeutic ranges and all sites in a multi-centred trial, excluding first three weeks of therapy

	Dawn AC Computer	Medical Expert
%Time in Range	70	56
Mean Visit Days	18	17
% Dose Changes	38	53
% INRs above Range	15	17
% INR’s Below range	28	33
Mean INR	2.6	2.6

Table 2: Percentage of INR’s Below and Above Range for stabilisation patients i.e. on therapy from week 3 to 22

	2.0 to 3.0 range		2.5 to 3.5 range
Stabilisation Patients>3 and < 22 weeks	Below	Above	Below	Above
Dawn AC	22.8	15.7	34.5	9.1
Medical Expert	32.2	16.2	44.3	19.7

Caution from (CHEST/119/1/Jan 2000 32S) :

“It cannot be assumed, however, that all computer programs will be equally successful, and new programs will require independent validation by randomised controlled studied to determine the extent of their ability to accurately predict dosage control”

“We Really Care"

“Lancet Nov 7th 1998, Multi-centred Randomised Trial using Dawn AC shows computer aided dosage leads to INR control 20 to 30% better than medical experts”