A calculator created by Larner College of Medicine alumnus Samuel Short, M.D.’23, helps physicians decide if atrial fibrillation patients should take blood thinners, according to the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (UNC). Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine and the University of Vermont have developed a more precise way to assess stroke risk in people with atrial fibrillation, a condition that affects 10.5 million Americans and is a leading cause of stroke.
Their findings, published in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, show that adding blood tests to an existing risk calculator can help physicians better determine who truly needs blood thinners—powerful drugs that prevent strokes but can also cause dangerous bleeding.
“This will help doctors better select patients for anticoagulation, potentially saving lives and reducing health care costs,” said Dr. Short, a first-year hematology and oncology fellow at the UNC School of Medicine and lead author of the paper.