Patient, Heal Thyself: The Ongoing Evolution of Patient Self-directed Care and Hand-Held Technology.

The authors reflect on patient self-directed care strategy for long-term anticoagulation with warfarin therapy. They relate on the meta-analysis by H. E. Bloomfield and colleagues which shows that self-care strategy using international normalized ratio (INR) testing for long-term anticoagulant treatment is safer when compared to clinic-based strategy. They mention the cost benefits of The Home INR Study (THINRS) by D. B. Matchar and colleagues and patient self-testing (PST) with usual care.