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The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote patient monitoring technology, which offers exciting opportunities for expanded connected care at a distance. However, while the mode of clinicians’ interactions with patients and their health data has transformed, the larger framework of how we deliver care is still driven by a model of episodic care that does not facilitate this new frontier. Fully realizing a transformation to a system of continuous connected care augmented by remote monitoring technology will require a shift in clinicians’ and health systems’ approach to care delivery technology and its associated data volume and complexity. In this article, we present a solution that organizes and optimizes the interaction of automated technologies with human oversight, allowing for the maximal use of data-rich tools while preserving the pieces of medical care considered uniquely human. We review implications of this “augmented continuous connected care” model of remote patient monitoring for clinical practice and offer human-centered design-informed next steps to encourage innovation around these important issues.
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Thinking Beyond the Device: An Overview of Human- and Equity-Centered Approaches for Health Technology Design
A shift in the traditional technocentric view of medical device design to a human-centered one is needed to bridge existing translational gaps and improve health equity. To ensure the successful and equitable adoption of health technology innovations, engineers must think beyond the device and the direct end user and must seek a more holistic understanding of broader stakeholder needs and the intended context of use early in a design process. The objectives of this review article are ( a) to provide rationale for the need to incorporate meaningful stakeholder analysis and contextual investigation in health technology development and biomedical engineering pedagogy, ( b) to review existing frameworks and human- and equity-centered approaches to stakeholder engagement and contextual investigation for improved adoption of innovative technologies, and ( c) to present case studyexamples of medical device design that apply these approaches to bridge the gaps between biomedical engineers and the contexts for which they are designing.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2201981
- PAR ID:
- 10499380
- Publisher / Repository:
- Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering
- Volume:
- 25
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1523-9829
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 257 to 280
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-bioeng-081922-024834
