How Internet of Things is Working in the Field of Healthcare

Healthcare, a basic need for every person on this planet. Because no one knows when they are infected by any disease around us. We, all how deadly the disease can be, Corona virus has taken the world with a storm. Still the health care services are costlier than ever. The global population has already seen many chronic diseases in the world and we can’t afford another global pandemic. Because we are approaching a system where even basic healthcare is unattainable to most of the world population. It is the only reason why a large section of society would go unproductive as they are easily prone to chronic disease.

We understand that technology can stop people from getting exposed to diseases or even eradicate diseases from all over the world. But the IoT(Internet of Things) development can help in getting easy access to basic & advanced healthcare which will be easier on the population’s pocket and in terms of accessibility.

As we have already mentioned that basic healthcare is getting costlier day by day, and if anyone near you has experienced large hospital bills then you will know what part of savings it can take from you. But with latest technologies like IoT, the daily routines of medical checks from a hospital can be done at home only saving a great chunk of money. The Internet of Things has an extensive applicability in numerous areas, including healthcare.

There are multiple aspects of this new paradigm, that allows the medical experts to function more seamlessly right from their position and even to give better treatment. With these benefits we can surely increase the life expectancy of patients & even improve their health quickly with efficient treatment.

Benefits

Simultaneous Reporting & Monitoring

IoT allows real time monitoring of every patient from anywhere to the doctors can know the live status of the patients. Real time monitoring is really important in the future as it can easily alarm the medical emergencies related to heart failure, asthma attacks, diabetes & other diseases that may be of concern.

The medical devices can be connected to the smartphone used by the medical practitioner to get the daily or time to time health data reports using the data connection of the smartphone. Many healthcare centres have incorporated this latest technology, as their reports suggest that there was a 50% reduction in a 30 day readmission rate because of remote monitoring on heart failure patients. The IoT devices can be mastered in collecting & transfering the regular body data like, oxygen level, blood pressure, blood sugar levels ECGs on the physician’s screen to make it easy for them to diagnose the patient even if they are far away.

That’s not it. The data collected from these devices, can be easily stored in the cloud and shared with the every concerned personnel like physician, insurance company, health firm, or even an external consultant, regardless their time, place or even device.

End to End Connectivity With Affordability 

With all the regular data saving, IoT can easily automate the regular care with its next gen healthcare facilities. Iot is pretty much very advanced, as it enables some of the top demanding features like:

• Machine to Machine Communication
• Information Exchange
• Easy Data Movement
• Interoperability

These aspects of IoT can easily change the spot illness & ailments in patients & can also move innovative revolutionary ways of treatment. People usually think that adding technology to the treatment will increase the cost by a lot. But this is another myth that we like to debunk, as it brings down the cost as you don’t have to do unnecessary visits, improves allocation & planning and even utilizing better quality resources.

Easy Data Assortment & Analysis 

IoT technological devices easily & quickly send the data to the other devices. We have seen that the healthcare providers acquire data originating from multiple devices and sources & analyze it manually, as it takes very long time and takes the patient’s life in danger. But the IoT devices can collect, report and analyse the data in real time & send the needed data ASAP even saving it in the cloud to be easily accessible at any time of the day.

The IoT enables many features that can make the patient’s condition much better in hard times.

• Real Time Alerting
• Better Accuracy
• Tracking
• Monitoring
• Apt Intervention by Doctors to improve patients health

Challenges

Every technology is prone to many methods which come as challenges while using it in the technology. Let us look at the challenges that come with the IoT medical devices.

Data Security & Privacy

Data security is very important in this technology driven era. With everything on the internet, it is very important for us to keep it safe and IoT poses this threat as it captures and transmits data in real time. And every data on the internet is under scrutiny. So, it makes the data easily susceptible to the cybercriminals who can easily hack the system to get the information for both patients & the doctors.

With no ownership of the data, the criminals can create a fake ID to buy drugs and other medical equipment which are alloted to a particular patient only.

Integration of Multiple Devices & other Protocols 

Well, integration of multiple devices is not a problem, but the including multiple devices at the same time can cause hindrance. The device manufacturers are not able to find a way of communication protocols & standards. So, if the variety of devices are connected, the data can be complicated and hinders the process of data aggregation. This slows down the process and reduces the scope of scalability of IoT in healthcare.

Data Overload & Accuracy 

The amount of data that IoT is stored is very tremendous that it becomes very difficult for doctors to make the right decision. With more and more devices connected, this problem is surely going to rise.

Cost

You must remember us mentioning that cost will not be too much for IoT technology in the medical field and that is true. But the healthcare costs are still a worrying sign as it is not available for the common man at low cost as of now. It needs proper investment from the investors or the government so it can reach too many people.

Applications of IoT in Healthcare

You must have learned one thing about IoT is that its future holds a part in our lives as it has outstanding several healthcare applications as it helps in.

• Tracking patients, staff and inventory
• Drug Management
• Availability of Critical Hardware
• Reducing Emergency Room Wait Time

Now look at the other beneficial devices from IoT

Hearables

Hearables are the latest way to solve the problem for people who suffered hearing loss or partial hearing loss. These hearables are compatible with Bluetooth which syncs your smartphone with it and helps you filter, equalize and add layered features to real world sounds.

Healthcare Charting 

IoT devices can take your manual work and create a schedule by voice commands to capture the patient’s data. It makes the patient’s data readily accessible for review. It actually saves doctor’s work by 15 hours per week.

IoT is surely going to change the healthcare industry as it makes a positive impact on doctor’s, patient’s & every medical life & makes it easier for everyone.