The Internet of Things has already changed the world that influences both the way we live and react in our daily routine. Healthcare domain is one of the most important sectors, but due to the complexity, level of responsibility and strict regulations, innovations have to come a long way before they get fully adopted in this domain. However, things have changed since the pandemic has shown the vulnerabilities and inefficiencies in this sector. Internet of Things could be the big technology that will help us to solve these healthcare issues.
Almost 60% of medical organizations worldwide are already looking for better IoT solutions in healthcare. In the upcoming years, the number of patients and professionals in healthcare using IoT-connected devices for health monitoring is expected to grow significantly. The Internet of Things in healthcare can be a solution to a number of problems – low medication adherence rate, lack of tools for treatment control and off-clinic patient monitoring, under serving and shortage of skilled professionals. Healthcare services are costlier than ever, global population is aging and the numbers of chronic diseases are on a rise.
Real-time monitoring via connected devices can save lives in event of a medical emergency like heart failure, diabetes, asthma attacks, etc. With real-time monitoring of the condition with the help of a smart medical device connected to a smartphone app, connected devices can collect medical and other required health data and use the data connection of the smartphone to transfer collected information to a physician. The IoT device collects and transfers health data: blood pressure, oxygen and blood sugar levels, weight, and ECGs. These IoT devices collect and transfers health data – blood pressure, oxygen and blood sugar levels, weight, and ECGs & this data can be stored in the cloud and can be shared with an authorized person, who could be a physician or medical authoritative personnel to allow them to look at the collected data regardless of their place, time, or device.
IoT devices in healthcare enable interoperability, machine-to-machine communication, information exchange, and data movement that make healthcare service delivery effective. Consequently, technology-driven setup brings down the cost, by cutting down unnecessary visits, utilizing better quality resources, and improving the health care services.
A huge amount of data that a healthcare device sends in a very short time owing to their real-time application is hard to store and manage if the access to cloud is unavailable. IoT devices can collect report and analyses the data in real-time and cut the need to store the raw data. This all can happen overcloud with the providers only getting access to final reports with graphs.
Moreover, healthcare operations allow organizations to get vital healthcare analytics and data-driven insights which speed up decision-making and are less prone to medical errors.
On-time alert is critical in event of life-threatening circumstances. Medical IoT devices collect vital data and transfer that data to authorized doctors for real-time tracking of patience illnesses along with dropping notifications to people about critical parts via mobile apps and other linked devices. Reports and alerts give a firm opinion about a patient’s condition, irrespective of place and time. It also helps make right decisions to provide on-time treatment. Thus, IoT enables real-time alerting, tracking, which permits hands-on treatments, better accuracy by doctors & nurses and improve complete patient care delivery results.
IoT for healthcare can also be used for research purposes. It’s because IoT enables us to collect a massive amount of data about the patient’s illness which would have taken many years if we collected it manually. This data thus collected can be used for statistical study that would support the medical research. Thus, IoT don’t only saves time but also our money which would go in the research. Thus, IoT has a great impact in the field of medical research. It enables the introduction of bigger and better medical treatments.
IoT changes the way the facilities are delivered to the healthcare industry.
