Last Updated | July 25, 2023
The healthcare industry is undergoing a despairing state where healthcare services are becoming costlier. To make things even worse, the frequency of chronic diseases is increasing, while the global population in various parts of the world is aging. We are approaching a state where healthcare facilities will either be unavailable or become too expensive for the masses. Consequently, theirs is an increasing threat of the global population becoming prone to chronic ailments.
Well, while the situation may look bleak, futuristic technology like IoT app development is rescuing the healthcare industry. It’s obvious that technology cannot eradicate chronic ailments or stop aging, but it can improve the cost-effectiveness and accessibility of healthcare treatment. The technology can transform medical treatments from hospital-centric to home-centric. While, the future of the Internet of Medical Things may be blurred for many healthcare institutions, here in this blog we will be decluttering the aspects you need to know about the technology.
How the Internet of Medical Things Is Impacting Healthcare?
According to the Deloitte report, more than 500,000 different healthcare and medical technologies are available, designed to deliver better efficiency and improved outcomes in the healthcare sector. With the improvement in technology, organizations are leveraging the Internet of Medical Things, to collect and transmit health data and design more efficient workflow processes for the delivery of healthcare services. These applications are increasingly playing an influential role in preventing and tracking chronic ailments.
The Internet of Medical Things is the collection of medical software applications, systems, and devices. This is a growing pool, and the current wave is of sensor-based tools, such as remote patient monitoring tools and wearables. The connectivity will streamline the clinical workflow management, hence assist in the improvement in patient’s healthcare.
The Increasing Potential
The Internet of Medical Things delivers precise diagnosis, along with cost-effective treatments and low errors. Coupled with the smartphone apps, the IoMT will empower the patients to send healthcare data to the providers for better disease surveillance, tracking, and prevention. In addition, these technologies are dismissing the need for one-on-one medical visits while reducing the costs.
In addition, the implementation of IoMT is projecting better drug management (yes, we are hinting at smart pills). The smart pills are integrated with microscopic sensors that can transmit data to the connected devices. These sensors can measure the effectiveness of the treatment, hence greatly improving the clinical treatment. In some cases, the sensors help monitor the internal health of the patients as well.
What Impacts Will the IoT Have on The Healthcare Sector?
The implications of the Internet of Things have delivered better opportunities for personal health. For instance, the 3D-printed wristbands are suitable for determining vital signs. In the future, the wearables with IoMT will help determine the sleeping patterns, GP visits, nutritional balance, along with exercise programs.
It’s safe to say that the integration of IoT in the healthcare industry will result in convenient and stronger patient care. Ranging from smart sensors to medical devices, the healthcare delivery will speed up, which means the diagnoses, communication, and commuting costs will be lesser. In addition, the asset monitoring aspect of IoT will deliver various benefits.
A small example; the IoT sensors can be installed on patient wheelchairs that will ease the tracking. In addition, the monitoring devices can be integrated with IoT for improved patient monitoring. Similarly, the patient care time will be reduced in the hospitals since these devices can transmit the signals. For the most part, the IoMT will deliver real-time reporting and monitoring of patients.
In case of emergencies, the patients can utilize the smartphone app for contacting the doctor, and the doctors will remotely determine the ailments. IoMT helps with research in the healthcare industry. It’s primarily because it can collect an incredible amount of data about the diseases (manual information collection would take years). Therefore, medical research will be widely supported.
It’s evident that healthcare costs are likely to grow at an unmanageable rate in the near future, but mitigation is important to consider. For this reason, IoT will improve patient satisfaction through the optimization of operations.
At this point, let’s take a pause because we want to talk about the medical device UX. That’s because these IoT devices won’t yield the said benefits if the user experience isn’t up to the mark. The user experience interface will ensure that healthcare providers are able to use the IoT devices rather than getting frustrated by a complicated system.
It’s safe to say that the Internet of Things helps develop automated solutions for healthcare delivery and improved patient monitoring.
Why Is IoT Important in Healthcare?
Streamlined Monitoring & Reporting
The IoT-connected devices deliver real-time monitoring, which has the capacity to save lives in case of medical emergencies. The real-time monitoring of health conditions with smartphone apps can provide medical data collection. In addition, the utilization of data connection will transfer the collected data and information to the doctors.
Currently, the IoT devices are capacitated to collect and transmit healthcare data, including blood sugar level, oxygen level, blood pressure, patient’s weight, and ECG. The data can be stored in the cloud and is transferable to authorized personnel, such as doctors or insurance companies.
Better Connectivity
In particular, IoT delivers end-to-end connectivity and encryption, hence better data storage. There are various healthcare mobility solutions that help automate the workflow of patient care. For this reason, the Folio3 custom healthcare software development company can be utilized for creating the IoMT solutions that deliver interoperability and improved information exchange.
Data Analysis & Assortment
Healthcare devices tend to transmit an incredible amount of data in a short span of time. However, it can be hard to manage and store the information. That being said, IoT devices can collect, analyze, and report the data on a real-time basis. In addition, the IoT devices will cut out the need for storing raw data.
What Is The Future Of Healthcare Technology?
Improved Cloud Integration
The devices that collect digital data are crucial for healthcare facilities, but data sharing is an equally crucial part of the equation. In the future, healthcare technologies will see cloud integration in current apps and technologies which will streamline data sharing, providing real-life examples of integrated health services.
Infusion Of AI
Artificial intelligence has been around for quite some time now. However, in the next decade, artificial intelligence will become an even more important part of the healthcare industry. The consumer-focused services will witness the merging of consumer and patient journeys, and AI will change how patients communicate with the healthcare providers.
Infrastructural Upgrading
Chronic care management demands mobile and web portals, so doctors can meet with the patients. However, there are gaps in the technology, which has hindered communication. With the implication of IoT, such infrastructures will be improved and upgraded.
FAQs
Q: 1 Benefits of IoT in healthcare in developing countries like the USA?
While various companies like folio3 medical practice management software companies are working in the IoT healthcare sector in the USA, however, the healthcare facilities are still uncertain about the benefits of IoT associated with healthcare. To begin with, IoT devices will eliminate the risk of overdoing doctors with data. By correctly and aptly using the available data, IoT devices will play an influential role in the diagnosis of diseases.
Secondly, with the implication of IoT technologies in the hospital’s infrastructure, the routine processes will be made effective, and the speed will be improved as well. On top of everything, IoT in healthcare helps with real-time monitoring and delivers better control on the healthcare facilities’ environment and staff.
Q: 2 Advantages and Disadvantages of IoT in healthcare?
Advantages
The IoT technologies in healthcare can help with staff management in hospitals. It’s safe to say that IoT devices will improve efficiency and seamlessly maintain complicated infrastructures. For instance, Folio3 medical device software development can help organize the hospital teams and optimizes the provision of care. In addition, IoT will help with the development of smart medicine that shares the body’s data and environment and transfer it to the app for better interpretation.
Disadvantages
There are some disadvantages associated with the Internet of Things in the healthcare industry. For instance, there are security challenges associated with IoT devices since there are no set standards for healthcare systems. In some cases, the IoT devices can generate an excessive amount of data which can be hard to analyze. Also, the integration of IoT devices in current infrastructures and systems will be cumbersome.
IoT & EHR systems in healthcare & how HL7 Can bring further improvement
There are various benefits of IoT devices and EHR systems individually. However, the integration of both these systems does add more value to the healthcare system. This is because the integration of EHR systems and IoT devices can improve patient care standards. However, to achieve this level of integration, there is an obvious need for a communication medium. That’s because communication leads to interoperability, and IoT systems need to gain the maximized value.
On the other hand, there is an obvious issue with the transmission of information between different health programs and healthcare providers, especially in developing countries. That’s to say because, in developing countries, there are hardly any standards and ICT infrastructure for exchanging and sharing information. In addition, there is a need for standardized communication between different devices to ensure optimal functionality with EHR and IoT systems.
HL7 is the set of standards and a common language that streamlines the information exchange between various systems. To illustrate, HL7 was designed as a standard to ensure seamless communication between EHR systems. At this point, it’s important to consider the HL7 interface engines as well. That’s because these HL7 interface engines can bridge this gap between different systems.
These interface engines support different HL7 languages, such as FHIR, V2, and V3. In addition, it can bridge the gaps between various communication protocols of HL7, such as Email to TCP and File to FTP. To summarize, the utilization of HL7 interface engines with IoT and EHR systems can optimize healthcare and medical information transmission while complying with the regulatory standards.
Q: 3 Challenges and opportunities of the Internet of Things in healthcare?
Challenges
Given the implication of the Internet of Things in the healthcare industry, data security and privacy are the most common challenges. This is because IoT devices tend to capture and transfer the data on a real-time basis. However, there are various open points for hackers to steal the collected data. This indicates that there are certain security challenges with the Internet of Things in healthcare. Secondly, IoT devices and technologies are extremely expensive, which poses a serious challenge for mainstreaming the technology.
Opportunities
Leveraging IoT in the healthcare industry reduces operational costs, which actually improves patients’ accessibility for treatments. In addition, the patient experience will be improved while the errors will be reduced. The IoT devices can deliver remote monitoring, which offers smarter functionalities, so getting in touch with customer healthcare software development companies like folio3 telemedicine software development company will deliver a better future of the healthcare industry!
The Bottom Line
Truth be told, IoT is the future of the healthcare industry; provided the right integration of the technology. The recent pandemic has just highlighted the limitation and crisis of the healthcare industry and has reflected on the importance of implicating IoT technologies. The sustainability and growth of the healthcare industry thus lies with the Internet of Medical Things and other futuristic technologies that can improve safety and increase the efficiency of the industry!
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