Valve Replacement Survey - $50 Amazon gift card!

[jaddorio]

Hello Members,

Thank you for reading this. I am working on a research project on heart valve replacement, and am looking for people in the US who received a mechanical replacement heart valve in the past 5-6 years to take our survey. (My father had mitral valve replacement several years ago and he made me aware of this site, which has been a wonderful resource for him.)

Specifically, we are trying to better understand your experience since surgery with warfarin / anticoagulation. The ultimate goal is to share these findings with surgeons, so they can better prepare patients who may need valve replacement surgery in the future. There are no sales involved, and your participation will not be shared with anyone – this study is strictly for market research purposes.

The survey takes about 20 minutes, and for your time we can offer you a $50 Amazon gift card (which we will send by email within 2 days of finishing the survey). If you are interested, please click on the link below to answer a few questions to make sure the survey is appropriate for you. If you qualify and complete the survey, you will be asked for your name and contact information at the end so we can email your Amazon gift card.

https://schlesinger.focusvision.com/survey/selfserve/1819/g0db/230341?list=3&co=US


If you have any issues or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I sincerely hope you will consider participating – your input would be extremely valuable for this research and most importantly will benefit patients undergoing valve replacement in the future.

Thank you in advance for your time. Take care, and continued health to you all,

John Addorio
Integrated Insights

 

[jaddorio]

Hi Everyone, thank you for the response so far! We have a few more spots if anyone would like to participate. (Sorry if you were blocked out yesterday, there was a hiccup that has been fixed.)

Please message me if you have any issues logging in.

Thanks!
John

 

[Chuck C]

The survey is legitimate. I took it and received the gift card.

I’ll share my thoughts about it. I entered the survey in good faith, but about 20 questions in I began to get very suspicious. I suspect that this is sponsored by a tissue valve manufacturer who is trying to gain market share. The low hanging fruit is perhaps getting a higher % of folks to choose tissue over mechanical. To do this, they have to understand why people chose mechanical over tissue in the past.

There were many questions. The below is not all inclusive and not word for word, as I didn't photo save the pages, but this was the gist of it.

How much does the clicking bother you?

How much has the clicking affected your sleep?

How much does the clicking bother your spouse?

Did you medical team warn you about the clicking?

Did your medical team inform you that you would need to alter your diet if you chose a mechanical valve?

How much of an inconvenience is it to alter your diet due to being on blood thinners?

Did you medical team warn you that you would need to take blood thinners for the rest of your life?

How often do you have to go the lab to get your blood drawn?

How much of an inconvenience is it to have to go to the lab on a regular basis?

How much do you have to pay each year for lab testing?

Did your medical team tell you that you would need to get tested on a regular basis?

Did you choose mechanical over tissue because you were concerned about re-operation?

If so

Didn’t your medical team tell you that you would be able to get your next procedure through your leg and not get OHS if you choose a tissue valve? If you knew this would you have chosen a tissue valve over mechanical?

If you were aware of all the problems of the mechanical valve would you have chosen a tissue valve?

I would be more inclined to think that their intentions were honorable, if the questions were more along the lines of trying to understand how the medical field can better inform patients to have fewer events by self testing. Or trying to understand if the medical teams are properly emphasizing the importance of regular testing in general.

How about: Did your medical team explain to you that events are reduced by approximately 50% for those who self test? No, this was not the type of feedback they wanted, and not the type of questions that they asked which could have been used to do some good.

Or how about this: "Did your medical team inform you that the most recent studies suggest that patients don't really have to tightly control their diet and tightly control their vitamin k intake, as was once thought?" Of course, nothing like this to make the guidance more accurate was included. It was all geared towards how they might "better inform patients" by amplifying fears and misconceptions about mechanical valves and anti-coagulation.

It really felt like they were trying to get a pulse on how to manipulate choices going forward to gain market share.

And why only survey people who chose mechanical in the last 5 or 6 years? The mechanical valves in use currently have been used for decades. Lots of valuable info from patients who have had mechanical valves for 6+ years. Why ignore them? I suspect the reason is that those who chose mechanical in the last 5 or 6 years, did so even though marketing suggests that for tissue valves the next procedure can go through the leg (TAVR). I think they really want to better understand how to penetrate that market. Those who chose mechanical over tissue 6+ years ago had a slightly different landscape, in which TAVR was not yet approved or just approved for high risk patients. I also suspect that they will use the data to try to influence surgeons and cardiologists: “____ % of respondents claim that the ticking bothers them at least a little bit. ______% of patients claim that they spend over $ on their labs each year.


Anyway, just giving my honest impression. Oh, I bought a really nice pepper grinder with the gift card.

 

[pellicle]

Oh, I bought a really nice pepper grinder with the gift card.

cool ...

 

[pellicle]

I feel like your survey is a scam, because I did your survey and I didn't get a gift card!

hey, but welcome to the forum anyway
(From Australia)

 

[pellicle]

Did your medical team inform you that you would need to alter your diet if you chose a mechanical valve?

How much of an inconvenience is it to alter your diet due to being on blood thinners?

just two well known mis-truths.

 

[jeffp]

Or how about this: "Did your medical team inform you that the most recent studies suggest that patients don't really have to tightly control their diet and tightly control their vitamin k intake, as was once thought?" Of course, nothing like this to make the guidance more accurate was included. It was all geared towards how they might "better inform patients" by amplifying fears and misconceptions about mechanical valves and anti-coagulation.

I’ve been clicking for close to 20 years (it’s less now that tissue has encroached on the valve seat - cardiologist says it’s a non-issue) and did get information on avoiding vitamin K foods. (I learned that that was more colloquially based than evidence based.)

I do agree with Chuck on his assessment of the questions that this is going to be used towards a targeted marketing campaign. Hey, that’s just business.

I’ve already got a decent pepper mill. I’ll often use it on my spinach salad with some oil & vinegar.

 

[pellicle]

... Hey, that’s just business.

I know that you live there and I live here, but the ethics of what the medical business can do in Australia (and AFAIK EU) are just a bit different here (I prefer it here, you probably prefer it there :- )

vive la difference

 

[Chuck C]

I’ve already got a decent pepper mill. I’ll often use it on my spinach salad with some oil & vinegar.

That is the same reason why I purchased the grinder. I make a large Mediterranean salad every day and like to use a lot of fresh pepper. I load my salad with spinach and other greens. The grinder will come in handy. If one reads into the leading questions on the survey, I suppose the authors would have folks believe that this is dangerous behavior.

 

[pellicle]

I load my salad with spinach and other greens.

my god man ... you're on Warfarin ... don't throw your life away ; -)

 

[palmaceae]

I feel like your survey is a scam, because I did your survey and I didn't get a gift card!

I also did the survey and did not receive a gift card? I did the survey about a week ago, how long does it take to receive it?

 

[Chuck C]

I also did the survey and did not receive a gift card? I did the survey about a week ago, how long does it take to receive it?

I received mine by email within 2 days of taking the survey.

 

[nobog]

Integrated Insights: (mailing address is in Las Vegas, John Addorio's Professional Contact is in Naples Florida)

http://www.integratedinsightsconsulting.com
Simply a market research company with lots of big words on their website:

Our mission is to deliver rigorous, actionable, and financially-oriented business analysis that enables our clients to create value through better decisions.

 

[Chuck C]

I also did the survey and did not receive a gift card? I did the survey about a week ago, how long does it take to receive it?

Hi Palmaceae.

I see that in one of your previous posts you said this:

"I had my first AVR in March of 2009 and the valve lasted 13 years but I now have severe aortic stenosis and symptomatic. So next week I go in to have it replaced with a mechanical valve. My first valve was a bovine tissue valve which in hindsight was probably the wrong decision, I should have went mechanical. So this time I decided to go the mechanical route so hopefully I won't have to do it again. They suggested a TAVR but since that may last only 10 years I would have to have a SAVR in 10 years to replace it, which would make me 70 years old. I am not in the best physical shape now so I could not imagine doing this in 10 years. So fun times next week but at least I know what to expect!"

This is most probably exactly the opposite of the type of feedback that this survey was hoping for. This is speculation, but perhaps they figured out a way to retroactively exclude your survery from their results, because it veers so far from the narrative that they want to present. You should have received two emails, one that started out:
"Thank you so much for completing our research study on heart valve replacement and anticoagulation therapy.." and followed by another one with the gift certificate.

 

[nobog]

This looks like a case of telling someone what they want to hear. These heart valve company's are using this to spin the early tissue valve replacement because TAVI is here.

Surgical heart valve: $4k
TAVI heart valve: $40K

+ labor of course

 

[palmaceae]

Hi Palmaceae.

I see that in one of your previous posts you said this:

"I had my first AVR in March of 2009 and the valve lasted 13 years but I now have severe aortic stenosis and symptomatic. So next week I go in to have it replaced with a mechanical valve. My first valve was a bovine tissue valve which in hindsight was probably the wrong decision, I should have went mechanical. So this time I decided to go the mechanical route so hopefully I won't have to do it again. They suggested a TAVR but since that may last only 10 years I would have to have a SAVR in 10 years to replace it, which would make me 70 years old. I am not in the best physical shape now so I could not imagine doing this in 10 years. So fun times next week but at least I know what to expect!"

This is most probably exactly the opposite of the type of feedback that this survey was hoping for. This is speculation, but perhaps they figured out a way to retroactively exclude your survery from their results, because it veers so far from the narrative that they want to present. You should have received two emails, one that started out:
"Thank you so much for completing our research study on heart valve replacement and anticoagulation therapy.." and followed by another one with the gift certificate.

Thank you for the response Chuck. I never received any email from them. During the survey it said I qualified to complete the survey. They never said that if I did not give the "correct" narrative that they were looking for that I would not receive a gift card. I hope that is not true as that would be under false pretenses. I did not see any fine print on how to disqualify yourself from a gift card for spending your time on this survey.
Thanks

 

[palmaceae]

Thank you for the response Chuck. I never received any email from them. During the survey it said I qualified to complete the survey. They never said that if I did not give the "correct" narrative that they were looking for that I would not receive a gift card. I hope that is not true as that would be under false pretenses. I did not see any fine print on how to disqualify yourself from a gift card for spending your time on this survey.
Thanks

John just emailed me the gift card, I guess there were a lot of bots doing the survey so yes the survey is legit and was happy to participate.

 

[pellicle]

Surgical heart valve: $4k

Just wondering, are Bio and pyrolytic carbon similar prices?

 

[nobog]

Just wondering, are Bio and pyrolytic carbon similar prices?

Close - but the market (i.e. location) determines the prices - a valve in the USA could be $5k but $2K in India. Of course TAVI is a different animal.

 

[jaddorio]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your patience and my apologies for any delays on the gift cards. We have sent out several batches so far, as some people here have confirmed.
For anyone that has not received their gift card yet, would you mind private messaging me your email address? (Simply to confirm where to send it. You can also email me directly at [email protected].) We'll continue processing these and sending to catch up and make sure everyone is rewarded for their time.

We really appreciate your input on the survey! Being able to hear directly from people like you who have been through this will be very helpful for others in the future.

Best,

John