Over the past few
decades, we’ve gotten used to the Internet and cannot imagine our lives without
it. Millennials and new age kids don’t even know what is life without being
online.
With the disruption of Digital Transformation, Internet
of Things have added lots of opportunities to business and consumers like us,
equally.
IOT means connecting things, extracting
data, storing, processing and analyzing in big data platforms and making
decisions based on analytics. It helps in predicting certain outcomes thereby
helping with taking preventive actions
The popularity of wearables, such as
fitness trackers, blood glucose monitors and other connected medical devices,
has taken healthcare by storm. Connected devices have become a prevalent
phenomenon in the consumer space and have made their way into healthcare
Healthcare is fast adopting IoT & changing rapidly,
as it reduces costs, boosts productivity, and improves quality. IoT can also boost patient engagement and
satisfaction by allowing patients to spend more time interacting with their
doctors.
There are a number of opportunities for the
internet of things to make a difference in patients' lives. IoT-enabled devices
capture and monitor relevant patient data and allow providers to gain insights
without having to bring patients in for visits. Adding sensors to medicines or delivery
mechanisms allows doctors to keep accurate track of whether patients are
sticking to their treatment plan and avoid patient's readmission.
Patients are using these connected medical
products to capture ECG readings, record medication levels, sense fall detection
and act as telehealth units.
Diabetes self-management includes all sorts
of gadgets and devices, which control glucose levels and remind patients to
take their insulin dose. The newest wearables are even capable of delivering
insulin on their own, according to health condition indicators.
Remote patient monitoring is one of the most significant
cost-reduction features of IoT in healthcare. Hospitals don’t have to worry
about bed availability, and doctors or nurses can keep an eye on their patients
remotely. At the same time, patients usually feel more relaxed at home and
recover faster.
Smart beds are a convenient solution for
patients who have trouble adjusting bed positions on their own. This kind of
IoT tool can sense when the patient is trying to move on their own and it
reacts by correcting the bed angle or adjusting pressure to make the person
more comfortable. Additionally, this frees up nurses, who don’t have to be
available all the time and can dedicate extra time to other duties. Many
hospitals have already introduced smart beds in their rooms.
At Boston Medical Center, IoT is everyday
life:
· Newborn babies are given wristbands,
allowing a wireless network to locate them at any time.
· They have installed wireless sensors in
refrigerators, freezers and laboratories to ensure that blood samples,
medications and other materials are kept at the proper temperatures.
· Hospital has more than 600 infusion pumps which
are IoT enabled. BMC staff members can now dispense and change medications
automatically through the wireless network, rather than having to physically
touch each pump to load it up or make changes.
At Florida Hospital, when patients go in for
surgery, they're tagged with real-time location system (RTLS) badges that track
their progress through from the pre-op room to the surgical suite to the
recovery unit so relatives can track the patients from outside.
Philips GoSafe can be worn as a pendant and
it helps to detect and alert falls in elderly people
There are few challenges as well in
implementing IoT:
· Data security & lack of standard
security policy
· Hospital’s internal system integration with
IoT data
· Further changes and improvements in IoT
hardware
The Internet of these Medical Things is a
game-changer as future will be connected, integrated & secure healthcare
industry
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