Human-centered design of home care technologies

Abstract

Home health, including self-care, has been recognized by an FDA study as one of six major future trends in medical device technology. The need for home care has increased due to many factors including the ever-expanding capability of medicine to increase longevity through interventions, which has lead to an aging population dependent on medical support for their well-being. Effective design of home care medical devices depends on the understanding the information processing capabilities of the user; The user may be the caregiver or providing self-care. The most successful technologies that have been employed in home care application enable the user to do less while providing the same or better “wellness” and/or “activities of daily living”. Existing technologies need to be examined to see if they are optimized for use in the home. Future technologies including telecommunications and virtual reality may be further developed for home use.