Afib Guide and Blood Thinner Decision Worksheet for Patients

February 20, 2023
UPDATED: August 30, 2023

  • Summary: Access patient tools to help in making a decision about taking blood thinners.
  • Reading time:  3–4 minutes

Some new tools are available for use in making a decision about whether to take blood thinners. These tools come from the ENHANCE-AF (Engaging Patients to Help Achieve Increased Patient Choice and Engagement for AF Stroke Prevention) Trial that our founder helped with.

The American Heart Association funded the trial. The principal investigators were at Stanford University, and the other trial sites were East Carolina University, Ochsner Health System, The Cleveland Clinic, and The Cooper Health System.

In the trial, shared decision‐making (SDM) tools for patients and clinicians were developed and tested. The goal was to determine if these tools could reduce patients’ decision conflicts when deciding on blood thinners.

The toolkit included: (1) a short animated video; (2) interactive questions and answers; (3) a quiz to check on understanding; (4) a worksheet to be used by the patient during the clinician visit; and (5) an online guide for clinicians.

The study showed that this novel shared decision‐making toolkit (afibguide.com for patients; afibguide.com/clinician for clinicians) achieved significantly lower decision conflict among patients with afib deciding on blood thinners than those patients receiving usual care.

Check out the Patient Toolkit (afibguide.com) and the Blood Thinner Decision Worksheet (download).

Here are additional resources to learn more about the study: