In the last two centuries the rapid development of technology and the substantial understanding of biology led to an increasingly sophisticated management of disease. We passed from the healers’ art to the industry of treatment. The diagnosis and treatment of disease increasingly demanded both the contribution of doctors of different specialties and the availability of expensive facilities. Therefore the model that prevailed was the hospital.

Home Care first appeared at the dawn of the 20th century. The Home Care concept embodies the idea of relieving a person’s pain at the place where the patient is most comfortable: the patient’s own home. Today home care is available in at least 63 countries and probably in the near future almost all nations of the world, both developed and developing, will have to provide increasing quantities and varieties of home care services.

Most recently the increasing pressure for acute hospital beds has given birth to a new type of home care, which is specifically defined as the “provision of health care services to patients at home, who otherwise would have to be treated in hospital”. This type of home care, named “Hospital at Home”, is the most advanced type of home care, aiming to provide a hospital setting in the home environment. The challenge is to achieve this shift of services from hospital to home, without depriving the patient of the indisputable benefits of biotechnology and expertise found in the hospital environment.