Technology has changed the way many manufacturers, industrial companies, and utilities work. The addition of IoT to the sensors has expanded their impact and utility cases, providing more connectivity and analytics to processes than ever before. Today, these smart sensors are Internet-enabled and more advanced than ever.

The fact is that this technology has incredible potential to transform health care activities and capabilities, including patient care and operational workflows. Although it is still in the developing stage, it may have its fair share of obstacles that are revolutionizing the entire health care industry in many ways.

Orbita, a healthcare-focused platform, designs and builds HIPAA-compliant virtual assistants. These are used to specifically engage long-term care patients. It integrates with a variety of wearable and smart home technologies to provide patients with the resources and assistance they need. This allows care providers to monitor patients remotely and, therefore, facilitate better communication for early intervention. Firstly, let us understand what is IoT technology.

What is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things, or IoT, connects to billions of physical devices worldwide and makes it easy to collect and share data.

Many benefits of IoT in healthcare

The use of IoT in medical facilities can help health care organizations reap many benefits

a) Price reduction
b) Good equipment maintenance
c) Faster and more accurate diagnosis in health care
d) Error reduction in data analysis
e) Improved patient satisfaction
f) Improved patient safety and security
g) High staff productivity

10 ways the Internet of Things is Changing Healthcare

Remote monitoring

Remote monitoring is nothing new, but the pandemic emphasizes its value. Because of the risk of patient visits, remote monitoring has served as an alternative to collecting valuable patient data outside the clinic and facilitating care for conditions ranging from chronic diseases to recovery from severe episodes.

This technology is a game-changer while improving care delivery and results. Its near-instantaneous communication capabilities allow for previous intervention, while its mobility leads to patient satisfaction. If regulators start health care organizations to extend remote patient monitoring beyond the pandemic, innovators could use it to develop, test, and improve technology to provide better care for patients.

Smart hospitals

Smart hospitals are healthcare companies that work to optimize, redesign and build new clinical processes, management systems, and infrastructure. This allows them to provide more valuable services, insights, and operational capabilities. These hospitals use digitalized networking infrastructure, and their framework consists of three key layers: data, insight, and access.

Virtual and Online learning

The internet has not only changed how patients are treated but how tomorrow’s medical professionals at every level are now being taught. With IoT devices being frequently used in surgery / operating rooms, medical students are now taught with this technology in mind. These IoT innovations also cover the practical applications of VR and AR. Another changing trend in education that is being aided by the IoT is remote learning through online courses. Students are able to use their connected devices to study and take examinations online — something that has become vital this year.

Safety and adherence tools

Security is the biggest concern, especially when maintaining maximum security while successfully tracking patient data. This is especially challenging for large companies. IoT provides inexpensive and cutting-edge tools for monitoring day-to-day operations in life sciences and healthcare. Physicians can track and contact patients (and vice versa) which means immediate help when needed, i.e. dispensing medication if the patient’s device is in the patient dispensing machine.

Frictionless monitoring of assets

IoT devices monitor, collect and transfer data such as blood sugar level, blood pressure, and ECGs. Data can be viewed by the patient, physician, and/or insurance company regardless of time, location or device. Real-time type monitoring can be of great benefit to medical emergencies such as heart failure, asthma, and diabetes. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is, quite simply, a set of connected devices that measure and monitor data in real-time. It provides more personal care and better final medical solutions.

Quality, compliance, monitoring

More IoT can be implemented to reduce costs, increase patient safety, better data recording, more reliable monitoring, and more direct and immediate doctor-patient calls. This means huge benefits to high-quality patient care when using real-time data and regular updates of patient records. Hospitals see huge help through IoT devices that deliver better hygiene monitoring results that go hand in hand with the real-time environmental monitoring benefits already planned.

Digital biomarkers to capture disease symptoms

Warnings in malignant situations are a critical and critical issue, transferring vital data to physicians who can capture real-time symptoms, and providing the physician with appropriate information to make the best diagnosis for recurrent health problems.

It also helps to monitor chronic disease and to understand important decision-makers in health, to give a strong and accurate report.

Closed-loop diagnosis for treatment

Because there is real-time data in the patient’s register, the patient has the opportunity to communicate immediately with the physician regardless of location. This means better diagnosis and morbidity with the distribution of up-to-date information and drugs based on the patient’s prescription.

The cost-effective system means remote health monitoring as well as effective diagnosis and improvement of the patient’s quality of life. 

Real-world data and surroundings

IoT healthcare devices connect directly and share data via SSL (secure service layer) connected to the cloud server. Storing and analyzing large amounts of data sent by devices is not so easy. IoT devices not only collect and report but also analyze raw data, with final reports being visualized as graphs.

Mobile healthcare

Mobile healthcare refers to the use of mobile phones and other wireless technology in medical care, primarily to educate the public about preventive health services. But its use has also expanded to disease monitoring, treatment support, epidemic tracking, and chronic disease management.