Inpatient Anticoagulation: 04

Inpatient Anticoagulation

This text provides a comprehensive guide to anticoagulation in the hospital setting. Designed specifically for use by hospital-based clinicians and associated hospital-based staff (nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants), the book addresses the most commonly used anticoagulant agents and primary indications for their use. In addition, this evidence-based book carefully reviews the epidemiology and treatment of complications associated with anticoagulants, addresses the use of anticoagulants in special populations, discusses new advances in anticoagulation, and finally, discusses how to develop programs related to improving the administration and safety of anticoagulants.

Margaret C. Fang, MD, MPH, is an academic hospitalist and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research interest is in how best to prevent stroke in older patients with atrial fibrillation. In particular, her goals are to explore clinical and biological risk factors for stroke, identify the optimal use of anticoagulants to prevent atrial fibrillation-related stroke, and direct attention toward social and behavioral barriers to optimal anticoagulant management. Eventually, she would like to develop interventions directed at improving clinical decision-making regarding anticoagulation therapy for the oldest patients.
Dr. Fang trained in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and subsequently completed a research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, obtaining a Masters of Public Health. She joined the staff at UCSF in 2003, where she is a practicing hospitalist as well as a clinician-investigator. She is currently part of the ATRIA Study Group, an NIA-funded study of warfarin use and outcomes in a large cohort of patients with atrial fibrillation.