AOTA Helps Reimagine How Medical Technologies Can Be Incorporated into Homes
The American Occupational Therapy Association is supporting the release of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health’s The Idea Lab, as part of its Home as a Health Care Hub initiative, to help innovators, providers and patients reimagine the home as an integral part of the healthcare system.
The Idea Lab features a virtual reality prototype named Lilypad, which gives users an immersive experience inside various affordable homes of representative people living with diabetes, and will provide a realistic look into the challenges and barriers people face navigating medical conditions in their daily lives. The Idea Lab also includes insights from patients, caregivers, providers and experts, tours of different types of affordable housing environments and highlights landscape research into design opportunities ripe for innovation.
In April 2024, AOTA was selected to serve on the FDA’s Home as a Healthcare Hub Steering Committee. In addition, AOTA was invited to the listening session that helped inform Lilypad’s prototype development, as occupational therapy practitioners have a unique and critical understanding of the supports and barriers that exist in the home environment, and routinely provide counsel to homebuilders and designers based on their expertise analyzing the fit between people, environments and occupations.
Sabrena McCarley, MBA-SL, OTR/L, CLIPP, RAC-CT, QCP, FAOTA, RAC-CTA, vice president of clinical reimbursement and regulatory affairs, transitional care management, AOTA volunteer leader and Home as a Healthcare Hub Steering Committee member added that, “Focusing on the home as the individual’s healthcare hub allows us to gain insight and tailor interventions around those social determinants of health items that we know can either have a positive or a negative impact on health equity such as income, social support and the setup of a home environment. These are all very important factors when we talk about determining home modifications and technology recommendations.”