Blood Self Test Saves Lives

In Vejle, Denmark, patients take blood tests themselves – at home. It saves lives every year, writes Nadia Louise Kristensen in Focus Denmark Nr. 3 2010.

At Vejle Hospital patients are taught to take blood tests themselves – another area where the hospital is helping to think in new ways.

A little finger prick, then up comes a number on the screen.

Blood cells. Photo by www.sxc.hu.

It shows how quickly my blood clots. Had I been a real patient taking the test at home, I would only have had to turn on my pc, open a little programme and enter the number. The figure would tell my doctor if I needed more or less anticoagulant medication. From a remote location, the doctor can see my reading – I can even write a comment to the doctor if I have any concerns. The programme can also calculate the most appropriate dose and a lot else besides, which is a good thing when comparing and analysing patient data.

The programme, called CSO/AC, has been developed in collaboration with the Danish company IntraMed and is used by increasing numbers of Danish hospitals. It can be used both for patients receiving anticoagulant medication and for patients with diabetes. In Denmark, the little programme saves lives.

“Every year, 500 people die in Denmark because of insufficient anticoagulant medication. Without this system, patients only receive proper medication 60 percent of the time. With CSO/AC, the figure is 80 percent. None of those patients who are testing themselves have been hospitalised with blood clots,” says Ivan Brandslund, who is laboratory manager at Vejle Hospital.

Besides saving lives, it also means that a physician can attend to many more patients. Using this system, Ivan Brandslund can look at the numbers and adjust the doses of 20-30 patients in one hour. If he had to see the patient each time at the hospital, he would only be able to attend to six patients in an hour.

The part of CSO/AC which calculates doses is in use in several clinics in the US, where it makes a big difference. One of them is the Medical Center of Plano, Texas: “Our clinic has about 900 active patients. All patients enrolled into our clinic are added to CSO. The dosing suggestions of CSO are considered, but of course the nurses make the clinical judgment regarding dosage changes. The system has aided our ability to track 900 patients in a very organized and efficient way, despite our volume,” says Kim Williams, a nurse at The Medical Center of Plano, Texas.

Denmark is a relatively small country where the nearest hospital is never far away. But in countries like USA, Canada and Australia, where there can be great distances between people and hospitals, CSO/AC has even greater promise, opines Martin Couët, Channel Sales Director at IntraMed, which is a distributor of CSO in the US: “This product has got a lot of potential. The healthcare providers can manage more patients with the same resources. The patients can save time and money on transportation while being more in control of their condition. And in countries like USA and Canada, as soon as you get outside the big cities, it can be a challenge to find qualified nurses and physicians.”