Contemporary Cybernetics

Abstract

BIO‐MEDICAL RESEARCH An interactive computer program has been developed by William T. Sawyer of the University of North Carolina (U.S.A.) and Andrew L. Finn of Duke University Medical centre, North Carolina, to assist clinicians in selecting appropriate maintenance warfarin doses. The computer program, which is described in Computers and Biomedical Research (12, 221–231, 1979), uses two mathe‐matical models to which actual patient data is iteratively fit. The authors point out that difficulties in establishing appropriate warfarin dosing guide lines continue to hinder improvements in the efficiency of anticoagulant therapy. Individual response is often seemingly unpredictable, necessitating numerous days of hospitalization, while dosage adjustments are made. Some patients may still be at risk from inadequate or excessive anticoagulant treatment and toxicities, and major or minor hemorrhagic episodes may occur in up to 10% of hospitalized patients and 30% of ambulatory patients.

Citation

(1980), "Contemporary Cybernetics", Kybernetes, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb005536