A number of innovations to make medical care more nimble and accessible—such as offering vaccinations in supermarkets—were pioneered for the homeless before making their way into mainstream health care, according to health policy experts.
An August 5, 2016 STAT article outlined several trends that originated in homeless medicine, including the increasing use of electronic health records; greater use of transitional care to ease the move from hospital to home; and care that brings the doctor’s office to where people are, such as medical vans.
Another trend—the establishment of health clinics that include specialists as well as primary care doctors—has long been in use among doctors caring for the homeless, to ensure that they can take care of multiple issues in a single visit. Howard Koh, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, commented on this “one-stop shop” trend. “You have to take care of the whole person,” he told STAT.
Read the STAT article: 4 trends in health care that were pioneered in homeless medicine