Home as a Health Care Hub
The FDA’s Home as a Health Care Hub initiative encourages each of us to reimagine the home as an integral part of the health care system, by incorporating, in the home, new and existing medical devices that promote health and wellness in people’s lives, potentially leading to a longer, higher quality life for all.
Opportunity
Medical devices used in the home are often designed to operate in isolation rather than as part of an integrated, holistic environment. Patients may have to use several different medical devices, some not initially designed with the home environment in mind. Home use medical devices, including many digital health technologies, can play a critical role in transitioning health care delivery to the home.
The Home as a Health Care Hub initiative is intended to help foster medical device innovation for use in the home, while considering diverse perspectives, testing new ideas, and exploring the possibilities that come with making the home a critical component of health care.
Get Started
To encourage innovation, the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) developed an Idea Lab, which has a set of free tools for developers that can be used to identify challenges, constraints and opportunities for people navigating their medical conditions in their daily lives. This includes visualizing how medical devices fit into the lifestyles and homes of people and how they integrate with other health technologies. The Idea Lab includes the Lilypad™ virtual reality prototype that allows users to visualize and build integrative solutions, including innovating new home-use devices, and to imagine ways to adapt existing devices to better meet the needs of people in their home environment.
Additional Resources
- Home as a Health Care Hub: Executive Summary of Research and Findings
- Frequently Asked Questions for the Home as a Health Care Hub