Royal Children’s Hospital is the first hospital in Australia to trial home monitoring for children and young people taking warfarin, a blood thinning medication.  Approximately eighty RCH patients, aged from 1 – 22 years of age are taking warfarin and most of them will take the drug for the rest of their lives.  The majority are cardiac patients.

Parents have undergone a rigorous education program before being allowed to do these tests at home.  This included two weekend sessions with Fiona Newell, the anti-coagulation nurse.  A true partnership is established between the family and the hospital in caring for the child.

Currently, the children must visit the hospital regularly – some come in weekly, others every two to three weeks – for a finger prick test to check their response to the drug:  a low response indicates an increased risk of a blood clot, a high response can lead to haemoraging.  Either outcome is life threatening for these children.

The families who being trained to participate in the trial are excited about it, as it means they no longer need to make the regular trek into RCH which can be time-consuming and disruptive for school and work.

In addition to being the first hospital to support home monitoring, RCH is the only hospital in this country to monitor these children by finger prick, rather than taking blood from the veins.  Veins can be hard to find in many children making it a painful procedure, especially for children needing regular blood tests.

Managing anti-coagulation in children is more difficult than with adults, because children taking warfarin have significant medical conditions and undergo changing medication regimes; despite the difficulties the RCH results are better than those published anywhere else in the world.

For media enquiries contact Julie Webber 9345 5130