Home Health & Hospice Week

Another federal agency is getting behind the idea of moving more health care into the home. The Food and Drug Administration is launching “a new initiative, Home as a Health Care Hub, to help reimagine the home environment as an integral part of the health care system, with the goal of advancing health equity for all people in the U.S.,” the FDA says in a release.

The problem: “Devices intended for use in the home tend to be designed to operate in isolation rather than as part of an integrated, holistic environment. As a result, patients may have to use several disparate medical devices, some never intended for the home environment, rather than interact with medical-grade, consumer-designed, customizable technologies that seamlessly integrate into an individual person’s lifestyle,” the FDA notes.

The solution: The FDA’s Home as a Health Care Hub, a home prototype, “will serve as an idea lab … for medical device developers, policy makers, and providers to begin developing home-based solutions that advance health equity,” it says. “By beginning with dwellings in rural locations and lower-income communities, the planned prototype will be intentionally designed with the goal of advancing health equity.”