Health@Home - An e-Service Model for Disease Prevention and Healthcare in the Home

The ageing of the population, the growth of chronic diseases, and the explosion of healthcare costs jeopardise the sustainability of healthcare systems in many European countries. This opens opportunities for innovative prevention and healthcare services supported by information and communication technologies (ICT). The natural focus for providing such services is the home. However, the ehealth services provided in the home so far are limited in scope and fragmented. This paper suggests a comprehensive service model for home-based e-health services in Europe, which aims to overcome the current service fragmentation. The Health@Home model integrates disease prevention and healthcare for different groups of citizens at different stages on the health scale. The technical challenge of this model is the national and Europe-wide integration of heterogeneous systems and services in a way that makes them reliable and easy to use for all citizens, particularly those with low technical abilities and severe impairments.