On April 23, the US Food and Drug Administration announced the launch of a new initiative, “Home as a Health Care Hub,” to help reimagine the home environment as an integral part of the healthcare system. The goal is to advance health equity for all people in the US--particularly those from various racial and ethnic minority populations and those who live in rural communities and lower-income neighborhoods.

While many care options are currently attempting to use the home as a virtual clinical site, very few have considered the structural and critical elements of the home that will be required to absorb this transference of care, according to the FDA. Moreover, 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's Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) has contracted with an architectural firm that intentionally designs innovative buildings with health and equity in mind, to consider the needs of variable models of a home and tailor solutions with opportunities to adapt and evolve in complexity and scale. The hub will be designed as an augmented reality/virtual reality-enabled home prototype and is expected to be completed later this year.

Diabetes will be used an example health condition for the hub, and the prototype will serve as an idea lab, not only to connect with populations most affected by health inequity, but also for medical device developers, policy makers, and providers to begin developing home-based solutions that advance health equity. Existing models that have examined care delivery at home have found great patient satisfaction, good adherence, and potential cost savings to health care systems, according to CDRH.

To learn more about CDRH projects, click here