Wall-to-Wall Health IT

A smart carpet could be in your future as part of the soon-to-explode home health IT market, the National Academy of Sciences predicts.

In its new guide, "Consumer Health Information Technology in the Home," the National Research Council of the National Academies says "high-tech devices that use complex networks of sensors and advanced appliances" are already being built for home environments. The example cited is a carpet embedded with sensors that can tell if someone's gait is normal or whether the person is becoming unsteady.

The guide refers to "the full range of IT developed for consumer use in the home -- including Web interfaces, special-purpose tools like lifting devices, and computer systems," as well as devices with embedded computer processors.

The council's target audience is designers and developers of home health IT devices, including those intended for self-care, self-monitoring, disease management and communication.

Health IT designers need to keep in mind factors such as variations in users' cognitive, physical and sensory abilities, home layouts and services such as telephone and Internet connections, according to the guide. Additional variables include other technology devices in homes, cultural differences and the fact that not everyone in every home will use the health IT devices.

The guide, penned by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under contract for the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, includes an extensive "design consideration checklist" to keep in mind when designing home health IT applications.

It does not, alas, include any more details about the smart carpet or just how Stanley Steemer would go about cleaning it.