The project involved a clinical assessment of 12,392 AF patients in 123 audits in Northern Ireland between 2013 and 2017. The review aimed to identify high-risk AF patients and to improve outcomes in stroke and VTE. Clinical pharmacists, GPs, and other practice staff worked in partnership to achieve the aims of this review.
Clinical pharmacists working within GP practices identified patients diagnosed with AF, and patients with the clinical markers of AF, and assessed them using the CHA2DS2-VASc scoring system. The percentage of patients identified as at high-risk of stroke has remained steady over the four-year review (mean=88.71%); however, the percentage of those high-risk patients not on appropriate oral anticoagulant treatment has decreased, from 32% to 18%, since the review began. Despite the increase in patients on appropriate AF treatment, the review has continued to prevent large numbers of strokes, with 80 prevented to date.