Architecting for connected healthcare:A case of telehomecare and hypertension

The healthcare system is in many countries operated by the governments, and interaction with the healthcare system is one of the most frequent interactions between citizen and government. Demographic, medical, and technological changes are likely to bring new aspects of connectedness into the everyday life of people and place healthcare and homecare professionals in new roles. A transformation is taking place where hospital best practices are constantly reducing patient’s in-hospital stays to alternative, less-costly care—notably at home. Telemedicine, telehealth, eHealth, home monitoring, and self-care are essential aspects of this transformation. Many issues are influencing this transformation, and new barriers are showing up where others are removed. A broadly oriented enterprise architecture effort is presented for the underpinning of the change process. The architectural approach encompasses views of the citizen, the healthcare system, the information infrastructure, and the citizen-oriented technology. A case of telemonitoring and self-care is presented using mobile hypertension measurement on a large-scale population cohort. Evaluation of the acceptance and success of the solutions is done within a combined understanding including technology, economy, organization, and culture.