AR/VR-Enabled FDA Home Healthcare Initiative Underway

Image credit: Yasmin H via Unsplash

A new initiative working to reconceptualise people’s homes as a key environment of the healthcare ecosystem has been launched by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Due to be finalised later this year, Home as a Health Care Hub aims to assist policymakers and medtech innovators in considering novel approaches to design, targeting at-home solutions that “seamlessly integrate medical devices and health care, prevention and wellness into people’s lives”.

The Hub will be designed as an augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR)-enabled home prototype in partnership with a specialised architecture firm, with Fierce Healthcare reporting over $AUD1.8 million ($US1.2 million) in initial investment from the FDA.

“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,” said the FDA’s Dr Jeff Shuren and Dr Michelle Tarver in a statement.

“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.”

It is hoped the AR/VR prototype will provide a deeper understanding of the various features of home environments that have bearing on patients’ use of at-home medical technologies.

Read the full media release via the FDA for further details, or check out this summary from Fierce Healthcare.