What are the benefits to participating?
In addition to the fact that volunteering for the study will potentially help the 120,000 Americans who receive heart valve replacements every year, the primary benefit is having your INR (International Normalized Ratio) monitored in the comfort of your own home. Studies have shown that home INR monitoring can improve the quality of oral anticoagulation therapy and may improve benefits and decrease harms.
For some patients, there will be no INR monitoring at all. For all patients, increased postoperative follow-up exams required by the study may improve outcomes.
