A flexible ICT platform for domestic healthcare of patients affected by chronic diseases

The management of patients affected by chronic diseases impacts in significant way the resources of the Health System in developed countries. The traditional healthcare model based on periodic in-hospital visits leads to a high hospitalization rate, with consequences on patient's quality of life and on the expense sustained by the Health System. The key to overcome the limits of this model is to rely on advanced ICT platforms for the management of the healthcare information, in order to change the direction of intervention from the hospital to the territory (patient's home) and from the ex-post medicine to self-driven medicine. A frequent monitoring of vital signs and lifestyle allows an early diagnosis and treatment of possible destabilizations, often avoiding the hospitalizations. The proposed ICT platform is based on remote kits of biomedical devices operated by professional caregivers during the ordinary visits performed at patient's home and a collection server transparently integrated with the electronic health record of the patient. In this way the specialists, the clinicians and the general practitioners can observe the evolution of multiple patients at distance and rapidly act before aggravations become irreversible. © 2014 IEEE