IoT in Healthcare making a serious impact on the healthcare industry. Before the Internet of Things(IoT), patients have to visit the doctor or discuss their problem overcall. There was no other way from which doctors can monitor the patient’s health conditions and make recommendations accordingly.
Remote monitoring in the Internet of Things (IoT) in the healthcare sector makes this possible to make a check on patients and keep patients safe and healthy, and encourage physicians to deliver superlative care. Patient engagement and satisfaction is also increased. Patient interactions with doctors get easier and more efficient. Remote monitoring of patient’s health helps in preventing readmissions and reducing the length of hospital stay. IoT is playing a major role in reducing healthcare costs and improving treatment.
IoT in Healthcare:
IoT is transforming the healthcare industry by improving people’s interaction by delivering healthcare solutions and redefining the space of devices. IoT consists of several applications in healthcare which benefit patients, their families, physicians, hospitals and insurance companies.
In this article, we study the impact of IoT has made in the healthcare industry and how it will improve the lives of people worldwide. By this, we can assume that IoT people can tune their devices to remind them of their appointments, calorie count, exercise check, blood pressure variations and so much more.
IoT for Patients –
IoT has several devices in the form of wearables like fitness bands and wirelessly connected devices like blood pressure, heart rate monitoring cuffs and glucometer, etc. IoT provides personalized attention to the patient. These devices are helpful in reminding the calorie count, exercise check, appointments, blood pressure variations and much more.
IoT has changed the life of, especially elderly patients. IoT enables constant tracking of health conditions. This is providing a major impact on people’s lives who are living alone and their families without any disturbance or changes in the routine activities of a person. Alert mechanism sends signals to family members and doctors.
IoT for Physicians –
By the use of wearables and other home monitoring equipment embedded with IoT, physicians have the ability to track patient’s health more easily. They can track patient’s treatment plans or any immediate medical attention. IoT helps doctors to connect with the patients proactively. IoT devises data can help physicians to identify the best treatment process for patients and reach the expected outcomes.
IoT for Hospitals –
There are many other areas where IoT devices are very useful. IoT devices have sensors that are being used for tracking the real-time location of medical equipment like wheelchairs, defibrillators, nebulizers, oxygen pumps, and other monitoring equipment. If a Physician deployed medical staff at different locations can also be analyzed in real-time.
IoT-enabled hygiene monitoring devices help in preventing the spread of infections and getting infected. IoT devices also helps in asset management like pharmacy inventory control, and environmental monitoring, and in checking of refrigerator temperature, and humidity and temperature control.
Benefits of IoT in healthcare:
IoT in healthcare is helping patients. With population growth, there is an increased in illness, old age, and other health issues, etc. IoT can also reduce the cost of medical treatment.
Simultaneously reporting and monitoring
IoT helps doctors to monitor the real-time conditions of a patient which can prevent any emergency situations like heart failure, diabetes, asthma attack, cardiac arrest, etc. IoT has made it easy for doctors to attend to multiple patients in less time.
IoT helps to store the medical reports of patients including blood sugar levels, ECG reports, X-rays, etc. in the cloud and can be accessed with an electronic device whenever needed.
End-to-end connectivity and affordability
Internet of things applications allow a better connection and use of the latest technology to enhance the connectivity and data sharing. This also minimizes the time and cost of treatment. With the technology, the cost of treatment is also reduced and allowing patients to be treated easily.
Real-time tracking and alerts
Many lives can be saved patients to send emergency alerts. The Internet of things has made this possible with the device’s help. A patient’s medical information is recorded and stored in real-time and sent to the doctor. In the case of any emergency, the doctor will get informed immediately and can provide assistance.
Check-up on the go
IoT healthcare devices help patients to easily contact doctors on their mobile devices and get immediate assistance. IoT in healthcare will also able to dispense medicines from machines as prescriptions. This can be done by connecting the medicine dispensing machine with the patient’s device.
Data analysis and data assortment
IoT involves storing massive data about the patient’s medical history. The IoT device send data to other devices without any issues. Analyzing such massive data manually is impossible, but devices can do it easily.
The data can easily gather, analyze, track, send and receive data with the help of a cloud base. The cloud base is required because the size of data is huge and it cannot be saved on the server.
Use of IoT –
Internet of things is used for monitoring the patients to virtually assisting them, IoT is used for many things. Here are some of the use of IoT technology –
Reducing wait time
Many patient’s condition gets more effected while waiting for things to be arranged or getting rooms to clear out. Waiting time can be reduced by more than 50% with IoT in the healthcare industry. IoT can track all the room’s availability and find the empty ones for the patients who need immediate assistance.
Cost of the technology
IoT can reduce the treatment cost for a common man. The Internet of things is in the process to make things cost-effective and it will take time. It has created the medical tourism situation where for getting the treatment at a much cheaper cost people travel to developing countries.
Privacy and security
The biggest problem in IoT is data privacy and security. The massive data that is being stored and transferred on a regular basis. Data can be hacked and it can be used against the patient and the doctor. These hackers are also creating fake IDs to buy drugs and medicines only to misuse them.
Everyone owns a different device and this is causing problems with the performance of the technology. The internet of things is working towards to find a solution regarding compatibility with different devices with the IoT network. The connectivity with different devices slows down the process of data transfer, analysis, and retrieval.
To ensure the proper dosage and tracking the effects of medicine, medicines are now being monitored by IoT devices. It reminds patients to take their medicine in the right amount and on time. If there is any kind overdose or underdose of medicine then the patient gets alerted.