Give full play to the role of pharmacists in the safety management of direct oral anticoagulants.

ABSTRACT

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are recommended as first-line therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolic diseases in relevant guidelines at home and abroad. Compared with warfarin, DOACs have relatively fixed dose, fewer drug interactions, and no need of routine therapeutic drug monitoring in clinic. DOACs bring much convenience to anticoagulant therapy, but they also raise a series of new medication safety challenges. Pharmacists should ensure the safe use of DOAC through improving corresponding pharmaceutical care mechanism, such as assisting doctors to improve the suitability of dose in prescription, standardizing laboratory monitoring process, setting up early warning of potential drug interaction, and strengthening anticoagulant conversion and perioperative anticoagulant therapy management. In the post-coronavirus disease 2019 era, incorporating DOACs into the standardized manage- ment at anticoagulation clinics is an important work extension of the traditional anticoagulation clinics and may reduce the risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus. In addition, considering the limit in labour and work energy of clinical pharmacists, the application of DOAC-related clinical decision support system may help improve the appropriateness of prescription and reduce the adverse drug events.Copyright © 2020 Chinese Medical Journals Publishing House Co.Ltd. All rights reserved.