Digital health as an enabler for hospital@home: A rising trend or just a vision?

Abstract

BackgroundHospital@home is a model of healthcare, where healthcare professionals actively treat patients in their homes for conditions that may otherwise require hospitalization. Similar models of care have been implemented in jurisdictions around the world over the past few years. However, there are new developments in health informatics including digital health and participatory health informatics that may have an impact on hospital@home approaches.ObjectivesThis study aims to identify the current state of implementation of emerging concepts into the hospital@home research and models of care; to identify strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with the models of care; and to suggest a research agenda.MethodsWe employed two research methodologies, namely, a literature review and a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. The literature from the last 10 years was collected from PubMed using the search string “hospital at home” OR “care at home” OR “patient at home.” Relevant information was extracted from the included articles.ResultsTitle and abstract review were conducted on 1,371 articles. The full-text review was conducted on 82 articles. Data were extracted from 42 articles that met our review criteria. Most of the studies originated from the United States and Spain. Several medical conditions were considered. The use of digital tools and technologies was rarely reported. In particular, innovative approaches such as wearables or sensor technologies were rarely used. The current landscape of hospital@home models of care simply delivers hospital care in the patient's home. Tools or approaches from taking a participatory health informatics design approach involving a range of stakeholders (such as patients and their caregivers) were not reported in the literature reviewed. In addition, emerging technologies supporting mobile health applications, wearable technologies, and remote monitoring were rarely discussed.ConclusionThere are multiple benefits and opportunities associated with hospital@home implementations. There are also threats and weaknesses associated with the use of this model of care. Some weaknesses could be addressed by using digital health and wearable technologies to support patient monitoring and treatment at home. Employing a participatory health informatics approach to design and implementation could help to ensure the acceptance of such care models.

A Comprehensive Framework for Hospital@Home Care Models

“…Our framework specifically includes technology and data collection in the context of hospital@home. Involving technology in these care models has been identified as key research issues in previous work [5,7]. In the following, we describe the envisioned use of the framework.…”

Patients' and caregivers' perceptions of the quality of hospital‐at‐home service: A scoping review

“…As proposed by Brody et al, electronic health records for tracking comprehensive personal treatment data and virtual health techniques for collecting real-time data should be further developed to meet patients' needs (Brody et al, 2019). Furthermore, to ensure patient safety and continuity of care, various technology innovations can be considered, including remote monitoring, telemedicine, point-of-care support and efficient allocation of healthcare professionals (Cordero-Guevara et al, 2022;Denecke et al, 2023). These measures can help patients receive appropriate, effective and continuous care at home, while also improving the efficiencies of involving patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals in the care delivery pathways and keeping them informed of any updates.…”

Feasibility of Self-Management of Hypertension and Diabetes Using Patient-Generated Health Data Through M-health in Central India

“…With the advent of Artificial Intelligence DH will become an unavoidable and dominant theme in healthcare [ 6 ]. Although such technologies are associated with strengths and limitations, wearable healthcare devices and supporting mobile health applications are now accepted in some healthcare models [ 7 ]. DH is being termed a paradigm shift [ 8 ] and is acceptable and beneficial to patients even without prior sensitization [ 9 , 10 ].…”