Global AF Aware week

AF Aware Week (November 20^th – 26th) is an excellent time to review the benefits to the care and management of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) that can be obtained by the use of the GRASP-AF quality improvement tool in practice.

The GRASP-AF quality improvement tool, delivered by PRIMIS and developed in conjunction with NHS England continues to be PRIMIS’ most popular and downloaded free-to-use tool: 3,380 practices have downloaded the tool across 207 CCGs since it was launched.

Over the past twelve months (since the AF Aware Week in 2016) 812 practices in England have been actively using the tool and 261 of those have used it more than once to make changes in practice.

NHS England’s Sustainable Improvement Team reports that the key change in practice is an apparent 3.3% increase in use of oral anticoagulation (OAC) in high risk AF patients (those with a CHA₂DS₂-VASc score of greater than 1). As a result of this increase it is calculated that (in this past twelve month period):

• 112 AF-related strokes have been prevented
• this reduction in stroke has made a potential maximum NHS saving of over £1.1 million, due to reduced admissions
• there is also a maximum potential social care saving of almost £269,000
• other changes seen in the 261 practices include a 2.1% reduction in those high risk patients being prescribed antiplatelet for their AF

GRASP-AF also makes use of the comparative analysis tool, CHART Online which provides the ability for practices to benchmark themselves securely and anonymously against others, locally and nationally. The more GRASP-AF data a practice uploads to CHART Online over time will provide greater consistency and accuracy in reporting.

More on the GRASP-AF quality improvement tool

If you have not yet utilised this proven and useful tool (or have not run it in some while) you may be interested in to know how GRASP-AF helps practices:

• the case finder elements helps identify patients who may have a missing diagnosis code
• calculates the risk of stroke in patients with AF
• identifies patients at high risk of having a stroke who are not receiving warfarin
• calculates the number of strokes that a practice can expect in the next twelve months, given current levels of anti-coagulation
• helps the management of patients with AF and highlights patients of concern or interest
• provides a dashboard view that is easy to read and gives a graphical representation and 'snapshot' of patient care
• results can be linked to NHS Outcomes Framework Domain 1 (preventing people from dying prematurely)
• addresses NHS RightCare indicators

GRASP-AF is free within NHS England for all members of PRIMIS Hub and members can obtain this quality improvement tool via 'Check for updates' within CHART. First time users (of any GRASP tool) will have to apply for access (granted by NHS England) via PRIMIS Hub before it can be used.

For more information on the Global AF Aware Week, please visit the AF Association (UK) webpage or look for the hashtag #AFAwareWeek on Twitter.