| Introduction. An interactive voice response system (IVRS) may facilitate communication of medication information to patients taking oral anticoagulants (OAC).;Objective. To evaluate an IVRS for OAC management using a health technology assessment framework.;Design. Quasi-experimental study at the Ottawa Hospital Thrombosis Clinic. Patients. Patients who had completed 3 months of warfarin therapy, had stable anticoagulation control, and spoke English were enrolled and followed for a minimum of 3 months.;Methods. Patients received their international normalized ratio result, dosage schedule, and date of their next blood test from the IVRS. The IVRS also notified patients of upcoming and missed appointments.;Results. 226 patients were prospectively followed for a mean of 4.2 months. Patients' anticoagulation control during the post-intervention period (80.3%; 95% CI 77.5-83.1) was noninferior to their anticoagulation control during the pre-intervention period (79.9%; 95% CI 77.3-82.6). 77.4% of patients continued using the IVRS after the study. 78% of the scheduled dosage messages were successfully delivered by the IVRS and did not require further input from clinic staff. The IVRS resulted in a minor reduction in the workload of Clinic staff.;Conclusion. An IVRS was a feasible and effective method of communicating medication information in this population of OAC patients. Future work is required to determine the generalizability of these results. |
