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Why go see the Doctor?: Care Goes From Office to Home as Technology Divorces Function from Geography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2009

John D. Stoeckle
Affiliation:
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Stephen Lorch
Affiliation:
Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Abstract

Two functions of home care, assistance to improve disabled and aged patients' mobility and function, and self-care that includes treatment, screening-monitoring, exercise assistance, and information exchange, are described, as are the technologies used for these functions. Social and economic pressures as well as professional rationales that expand the use of technologies at home are noted, as is their impact on the site of care and on the patient-doctor relationship.

Type
Special Section: The Use And Abuse Of Low-Cost Technologies
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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