This new scenario requires that both family members and professional caregivers of patients should know about the wide variety of non-institutional technologies and medical equipment available for home use to manage their health or assist others with their healthcare. Suitable medical equipment suppliers can assist you in making the right choice.

The range of medical technologies used in nonclinical environments runs the gamut in complexity from simple materials used for administering first aid to sophisticated devices used for delivering advanced medical treatment, and in size from tiny wireless devices to massive machines. Some medical devices have been used in the home for many years; other devices are just beginning to migrate there; and emergent technologies present new opportunities for health care management in the home. While some of these devices were explicitly designed for use outside formal health care settings by professional home health caregivers as well as the general public, many devices were not. Consequently, many human factors challenges must be addressed to render these technologies, devices, and systems safe, usable, and effective for use in environments beyond the institution and for use by the much more varied population of users in these environments. This chapter discusses standalone medical devices used in home health care.