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Over the last few years there has been rapid and radical change in the way clinical research in the UK is funded and supported within the NHS. This has resulted from restructuring and major new investment in research infrastructure, co-ordinated through Clinical Local Research Networks (CLRNs) and equivalent organisations in the devolved nations. CLRNs have resources to support local researchers undertake studies that have been adopted on to the national research portfolio. For example, CLRNs can help with gaining local approvals or provide research nurses to recruit patients, undertake study procedures and perform data entry. CLRNs can establish Local Speciality Groups in a number of areas of medicine, including non-malignant haematology. These new networks offer non-malignant haematology access to significant new resources and a major opportunity to support clinical research for the benefit of our patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces the third edition of the "Guidelines on Oral Anticoagulation," published by the British Committee for Standards in Haematology in Great Britain. Most of 1998 recommendations were not changed. In the third edition, oral anticoagulant refers to oral vitamin K antagonists (VKA). The author concludes that treatment with oral VKA remains the treatment for choice for the majority of patients with venous thromboembolism.