The resurgence of home medical visits—or house calls—is a clear response to two trends in American demographics: an aging population and a growing number of people with one or more chronic conditions that make getting to a clinic for medical care challenging.

But, says Dr. Zia Agha, executive vice president of clinical research and medical informatics at the West Health Institute, a non profit medical research organization, one key obstacle must be overcome by the medical profession to truly open the way for more house calls: interoperability of the technologies that represent the profession's support system.

In an interview with Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry magazine, Agha said that unless and until the myriad mobile devices used in home medical treatment communicate with each other, the industry's growth will remain slow but steady.