Design requirements to innovate and improve telemedicine and homecare products. A possible guide for designers.

The central role of hospitals in today's healthcare organisation provided its ineffectiveness in building a resilient healthcare service, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The desire and effort to move healthcare services to the territory, with a perspective of de-hospitalisation, have offered new healthcare places in a capillary network whose home becomes the focal point. The shift of some medical and care practices towards the household, and the role of technologies in this transition, impose a rethinking of the medical device design used by patients, family members and caregivers. The presented work fits into the debate on designing new systems and products for home care services with a human-centered telemedicine vision. Indeed, to ensure the success of telemedicine products and homecare devices, it is critical to understand the potential of emerging technologies and the design requirements needed to support their use and choice. Therefore, the contribution starts with three questions: i) what characteristics should a homecare medical device have? ii) what method and process should be used to design medical devices? iii) What skills does the designer need to deal with a medical project? and would define the knowledge necessary for the designer to operate in the medical world, the desirable characteristics of homecare medical products, and the strategies through which it is possible to achieve them. Thus, combining academic research (desk research, ethnographic research, and field observation) with educational experience outlined several design requirements that could innovate and improve telemedicine and homecare products, forming a preliminary guide for designers intending to work in the healthcare sector.