The economic costs of routine INR monitoring in infants and children - Examining point-of-care devices used within the home setting compared to traditional anticoagulation clinic monitoring

Abstract

Introduction The use of point-of-care (POC) devices within the home for routine INR monitoring has demonstrated reliability, safety and effectiveness in the management of infants and children requiring long-term warfarin therapy. However, a comprehensive cost-analysis of using this method of management, compared to attending anticoagulation clinics has not been reported. The aim of this study was to compare the estimated societal costs of attending anticoagulation clinics for routine INR monitoring to using a POC test in the home. Materials and methods This study used a comparative before-and-after design that included 60 infants and children managed via the Haematology department at a terti..