The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has launched a new online learning module to educate healthcare professionals about new oral anticoagulant drugs.
The MHRA hopes the module will help professionals manage the risks and ensure patients get the best possible benefit from the medicines, which include Boehringer Ingelheim’s Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate), Bayer and Johnson & Johnson’s Xarelto (rivaroxaban) and Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer’s Eliquis (apixaban).
Designed for doctors, nurses and pharmacists, the interactive programme takes the learner through key points about these medicines, how to manage the risks and how to make sure patients get the most benefit from these medicines.
This is the latest of a series of free-to-use learning modules developed by the MHRA.
The organisation has tackled classes of drugs that are frequently prescribed and associated with important risks, the organisation said. Topics already covered are opioids, SSRIs, antipsychotics and benzodiazepines.
What sets this module apart, the MHRA told PMLiVE, is its presentation.
Unlike previous modules, this one is mounted on a learning management system. This allows learners to keep a record of their learning. The system also makes it easier for learners to pause their learning and return to the place where they paused.
On successful completion of the module, learners will be able to download a certificate to show they have completed the course. The module has been approved for continuing professional development (CPD) by the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom.
“The MHRA has succeeded in delivering excellent material in a user-friendly and very engaging manner. This makes learning about anticoagulants enjoyable. The quiz at the end is a useful test of the learning,” said Dr Angela Thomas, director of the Haemophilia Centre at Edinburgh Hospital.