FUTURE OF IOT IN HEALTHCARE

The landing of 5G Internet technology has enlightened the Future of IoT in Healthcare services worldwide. The Internet of things has added high value to healthcare services. Though IoT has already stepped into the industry, its implementation moved at a slow pace. The introduction of 5G with faster broadband speed has given momentum to the IoT in healthcare.

Remember the situation of patients waiting in a queue for their turn. Can anyone feel the agony of the patient? Thanks to the scientists and engineers behind the Internet of Things (IoT) who made the change in the scenario. Now it has changed the whole concept of health services. Doctors can monitor the patients online from remote through advanced mobile apps, wearables, sensors and provide improved services.

Some other reasons why Healthcare needs IoT are Enhancing drug management, tracking patient and remote monitoring, reducing the waiting time of patients.

Let us have a look at the various benefits patients can have with this technology.

BENEFITS OF IoT in HEALTHCARE

Remote Monitoring of Patient

In many parts of the world, people reside far away from the nearest hospital. When a person becomes sick, relatives face problems in shifting them to the hospital due to facility problem. Sometimes, patients are not in a position to bear the pain and even collapse. Here comes the future scope of IoT in agriculture. Sick people can wear the designed machine which can read Blood pressure or Pulse Beat or Sugar level. The values may be monitored by doctors at the hospital and advise suitable remedy.

Knowledge Sharing

IoT will help a lot in knowledge sharing among physicians. Whenever a critical disease is cured by any doctor and needs the help of any specialist, it can be done easily from any part of the globe. The connectivity through Wi-Fi or 5Gor ZigBee can help in this regard. This is beneficial to both doctors and patients.

Economical for Patients

By using IoT-enabled devices, doctors can monitor patients in real-time. Thus, the process of real-time monitoring at distinct places can help patients cut down not unnecessary visits to doctors, hospital stays, and re-admissions.

High Quality Treatment

The use of IoT in healthcare has increased the quality of treatments many times. The quality in the sense that treatment could be better, fast, cheaper, and even without patient visits to doctor.

Emergency Care

Think of a patient residing at a place far away from a hospital. He may take much time to visit a doctor or any hospital in case of any emergency. This type of situation will be easily handled with the coming future scope of IoT in Healthcare. At least attending doctors can record the present condition of the patient through wearables and be ready with their action plan as soon as the patient enters the hospital. They can also guide them about proper first aid till the patient reaches the hospital.

Survey and R&D Work

The scope of IoT in Healthcare is playing a key role in survey and research work. Specialists have started storing all the patient history and data in the cloud. Survey and research work use the outcome data of statistical analysis health sector. The data reflects the areas of improvement and how it can be improved.

Ingestible Sensors

These are IoT sensors in the form of a small capsule. These are ingestable by patients. When the sensor starts working, medical consultants can monitor the irregularities and deviations in the body including blood pressure. Glucose level, proper functioning of the heart and nervous system, etc. This technique may serve as a milestone achievement in the health sector.

Contact Lenses

The eyes are the most delicate organ of our body. Water in the form of tears present in the eyes acts as grease for eyelids to open and close easily. Here the future scope of IoT in healthcare comes into the picture. Contact lenses in combination with microsensors are placed in the eyes. This technique is useful in reading the glucose level in the eyes, the status of cataracts,s and other diseases of the eyes. 

Some Companies Using IoT and Artificial Intelligence in Health Sector

PathAI

Located in Austin, Texas, and Boston. The company provides pathology solutions using IoT and artificial Intelligence.

Freenome

The company is located in San Francisco, California. It is engaged in providing AI-based blood test Reports. The company has set an example of treating Cancer in the early-stage using IoT, AI, and Machine Learning.

Buoy Health

The company is located in Boston, Massachusetts. Buoy Health developed an Artificial Intelligence assistant. It can guide online about treatment and its diagnosis of the disease.

Atomwise

The company has contributed to developing new medicines. Its major contribution is in developing medicine for the disease Ebola and sclerosis. Atomwise is located in San Francisco, California.

Auris Health

The company is situated in Redwood city of California. It is engaged in Surgical Robots.

Accuray

It is located in Sunnyvale, California. The company is famous for developing Surgical Robots.

There are many other companies like Tempus, KenSci, Intuitive, etc that are contributing in managing patient data in a better way using IoT and Artificial Intelligence

Limitations and Challenges of Future Of IoT in Healthcare

No technical concept comes only benefits. Everything in this world has pros and cons. Likewise, the Future scope of IoT in healthcare also has limitations and challenges.

Data Privacy

Everybody has right to privacy. Patients data should be confidential between doctor and patient. But this technology demands data be available in the open forums. This contradicts the policy individual privacy and security.

Variation in Standards of different IoT Devices

A patient may require more than one device as a wearable or ingestible.  The use of multiple IoT devices in a patient may have different standards of measurement and different tolerance values. Sometimes it doctors find it difficult to integrate these different data on a common platform and interpret the final result.

Conclusion

IoT with high-speed Internet connectivity is the emerging field in so-called digital health or new terminology e-health. The future of IoT in healthcare finds a bright scope. Both doctors and patients get benefitted from this technology. On one hand, doctors find a new technique to treat patients without getting physically meeting them, whereas patients get better and fast treatment at a reasonably low cost.

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