The Consumerisation of Home Healthcare Technologies

Abstract

Though widely promoted as needing to play a significant role in future healthcare systems, Digital Homecare could serve to complicate situations for patients and care providers unless it becomes much easier to create, deliver and manage the complex mix of technology, support and services that are appropriate to a patient at a specific time. Any holistic approach to Digital Homecare must be able to support a patients’ Physiological, Physical, Emotional and Environmental care needs. Furthermore, solutions must meet the requirements of patients’ family and friends who will need to take on much more participative supporting roles if Digital Homecare is ever to be deployed on a scale that will alleviate stretched healthcare resources and save the millions of dollars that studies claim can be saved. In all but the simplest of systems the patient gateway is a key technology component. Intelligent Gateways are critical to driving mass adoption of Digital Homecare. Without them, Digital Homecare solutions will remain the niche, high end technology applications that they are today functioning only in un-integrated silos. Current and future participants in the Digital Homecare sector should focus on developing more intelligent gateways to ensure mass adoption.