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Blog Summary:
The Internet of Things (IoT) has restructured the healthcare sector by changing the way things are done and providing better care to patients. Do you wish to understand the impact of IoT in healthcare through real examples and use cases? You are in the right place. We have covered everything here, including applications, benefits, and use cases. So, start reading the entire post.
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Emerging technologies have been a source of huge benefits to the healthcare industry, which has experienced the implementation of IoT. The IoT In Healthcare allows service providers to come up with the right solutions for those patients who have been delayed in care. It is the biggest concern for them and badly affects patient satisfaction.
IoT has transformed the healthcare sector in various ways, from hospital management systems to remote patient monitoring. It has maximized the adoption rate of this technology in the industry and thus also increased its market size.
According to Statista, the market size of healthcare IoT is likely to reach $83.81bn by 2024, with an annual growth rate of 9.91% CAGR from 2024 to 2029.
We will discuss here how this technology will benefit the quality of services provided in the medical field.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical devices connected to the Internet. These devices communicate through sensors and use sensors to collect, share, and analyze data, which is necessary for automating different tasks.
Analyzing environments and boosting efficiency are necessary. IoT applications have witnessed unprecedented adoption among several industries, including healthcare.
The IoT impacts the healthcare industry by improving patient care and increasing operational efficiency. Numerous connected devices facilitate real-time health monitoring.
Healthcare professionals can utilize these devices to identify various health concerns early on. This helps them take appropriate actions for necessary treatment. This technology also allows for remote patient management.
IoT wearable devices can detect many vital signs and notify healthcare professionals. This technology effectively improves response times and outcomes. It also has the capability of optimizing resource allocation, improving hospital operations, and minimizing overall waiting times.
Apart from this, data collected from different IoT devices can improve medical research. It provides a clear insight into different disease trends. With the advancements in IoT technology, healthcare has recently become highly personalized, accessible, and efficient. It thus revolutionizes patient experience and overall care delivery.
IoT brings a plethora of benefits to healthcare, right from seamless connectivity to real-time monitoring. Let’s discuss in detail some of the most popular benefits of IoT in healthcare.
Many IoT-powered devices including wearable can offer real-time tracking of necessary health metrics, including blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar levels, and more.
IoT devices in healthcare are quite useful and notify both medical experts and patients about any issues before they become a major concern. So, they act as a life-saving device, especially in case of cardiac or respiratory issues.
Once you enable real-time monitoring, IoT technology facilitates healthcare providers’ response without taking too much time to address health issues. It prevents patients from facing any situation like an emergency while maximizing patient outcomes.
IoT brings smooth connectivity between devices, patients, and many healthcare providers. With the help of many interconnected systems, many healthcare professionals can access patient data remotely. It removes the necessity for frequent in-person visits and effectively minimizes the strain on medical facilities.
IoT also offers an opportunity to minimize healthcare costs by offering virtual consultation and remote monitoring. It allows patients to benefit from fewer travel expenses and disruptions.
It allows healthcare institutions to grab opportunities to save the resources that they generally spend on physical monitoring. This model enables more patients to be cared for simultaneously, which enhances healthcare efficiency.
In healthcare, IoT makes data collection easy and helps healthcare professionals gain an in-depth understanding of patients’ health. Many IoT-powered devices including home monitoring systems, wearables, medical implants, etc., can produce continuous streams of data that are crucial for assessing long-term trends.
For instance, getting data from many diabetic patients can provide details of several patterns. It helps doctors to adjust their treatment accordingly. IoT data analytics tools enable healthcare organizations to offer personalized and effective treatment to patients.
IoT devices are available that offer proper tracking and quick alerts. This is important when it comes to managing various chronic diseases. After constantly monitoring health-related metrics, IoT systems can easily find potential issues and alert caregivers and patients accordingly.
For instance, using smart inhalers helps patients suffering from asthma to send alerts if it detects any worsening systems. It helps the caregiver take appropriate prevention action before the problems become serious.
This altered system enhances patient adherence to recommended therapies. It also helps healthcare providers make interventions at the right time, minimizing risks and hospitalization.
IoT offers valuable, accessible remote medical support, especially in remote areas. Healthcare organizations can offer consultations and check-ups remotely using many IoT devices. This makes healthcare inclusive and ensures its availability to people who are not capable of accessing it.
IoT-based telemedicine supports chronic disease management, where patients need daily check-ins but don’t need to visit the healthcare facility in person.
Apart from this, remote support makes patients stress-free by giving them the confidence that they can easily reach doctors whenever they need to. It boosts patient satisfaction and also the reliability of healthcare systems.
From remote patient monitoring and smart medical devices to connected ambulances, IoT in healthcare witnesses its multiple applications. Let’s discuss all those applications in detail.
As we already mentioned above, remote patient monitoring (RPM) lets healthcare providers analyze the health of those patients who are not present at the clinical facility.
Patients can use several devices, including oxygen sensors, blood pressure monitors, etc., to share real data with doctors. It minimizes the necessity for hospital visits most frequently.
RPM is also important for chronic disease management and makes early intervention possible. It reduces hospital readmission and thus improves the patient’s health, which is, in fact, a great help to many elderly patients.
Most of these patients can’t walk properly to visit healthcare facilities. Moreover, it is also useful for patients who are in distant places.
Many smart medical devices, including implantable pacemakers and insulin pumps, have redefined the way patients manage their health systems. These devices utilize the benefits of IoT to adjust medication delivery automatically.
Insulin pumps can continuously analyze blood sugar levels and provide insulin based on the results. This improves diabetes management.
Imaging systems, heart monitors, and smart inhalers are some of the devices that can be used for personalized treatment. These devices minimize human error and make healthcare fully accessible to patients at home.
Wearable health monitors such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, and biosensors have become quite popular in recent times. They are capable of tracking signs such as sleeping habits, heartbeat, blood oxygen level, activity level, and so on.
It provides users with clear details of their daily health habits. In health sectors, wearables are not merely meant for physical fitness but are also useful in diagnosing many particular diseases, such as sleep apnea and hypertension.
With the help of IoT, wearables can communicate data to many healthcare providers. This allows them to detect many early signs of illness and track the overall progress of a prescribed health plan.
IoT also has a major impact on hospital management, such as the optimization of patient flow, asset tracking, inventory management, etc. IoT-driven systems can track equipment, including defibrillators, ventilators, wheelchairs, and more. It ensures their availability and perfect maintenance.
IoT can ensure patient management by improving bed occupancy, managing emergency room crowding, and reducing patient waiting times. It enhances the overall patient experience and also the efficiency of the hospital.
IoT-enabled environmental sensors can analyze several factors, such as air quality, temperature, humidity, etc., in patient’s rooms. It creates highly safe and comfortable healthcare environments.
Enabled with IoT, connected ambulances can share data in real time between hospital staff and paramedics. When patients board, connected ambulances can transmit vital signs and other important data directly to the hospital, allowing the medical team to prepare for their arrival.
Connected ambulances also have the capability of getting details about route details, traffic, etc. It ensures that they have the fastest path to the hospital. This connectivity helps save the lives of patients.
IoT has revolutionized health service delivery for patient care in several ways, such as data collection, real-time monitoring, analysis, and more.
Today, medical professionals use smart medical equipment enabled by IoT to monitor patients’ vital signs. This helps them detect any serious health issue at an early stage and thus enables them to intervene in a timely manner.
As we already mentioned, remote monitoring is possible only using IoT technology. Remote monitoring lets patients visit hospitals less. Besides, connected devices improve the care process by notifying many healthcare providers about emergencies.
IoT makes it convenient for healthcare providers to manage resources more efficiently, improve patient experience, and minimize costs. With the integration of IoT, healthcare has become proactive, personalized, and highly accessible. It finally offers a great outcome in patient care.
We have discussed several use cases and top examples of IoT here. Now, let’s explore some of the popular use cases in depth, which improved diagnostics, patient care, and operational efficiency.
IoT in healthcare allows continuous glucose monitoring, mainly for diabetic patients. Traditional glucose monitoring requires finger-pricking. IoT-powered devices can track glucose levels in real-time and also collect data for mobile applications.
IoT-based glucose monitoring devices send notifications to patients, especially when the glucose level becomes too low or high. This helps patients manage diabetes effectively. These devices also alert doctors in case of emergencies and thus prevent any complications that arise due to unmanaged glucose levels.
Smart contact lenses, developed by Novartis and Google, aim to improve eye care and chronic disease management. They include sensors that can monitor glucose levels through tears.
Smart contact lenses are good options, especially for diabetic patients. They offer a noninvasive option for blood-based glucose tests. These lenses can track even intraocular pressures, which is basically an indicator of glaucoma. This is helpful in early diagnosis and monitoring of various effective treatments.
The major advantage of IoT-powered hearing aids is that they can connect to smartphones and many other devices even without wires. This enables users to customize their hearing experience with applications.
Some of these devices can even learn and adapt to the user environment. They can adjust volume and sound without any manual intervention.
One can connect hearing aids to healthcare systems, which lets audiologists get details about the progress of patients. It helps them make remote adjustments for performance optimization as well. This is effective when it comes to enhancing user experience and ensures continuous professional support.
Robotic-assisted surgery is one of the modern applications of IoT in healthcare. IoT-powered robotic surgical systems facilitate surgeons in performing even complicated operations while maintaining higher accuracy with the help of remote control and real-time monitoring.
These systems leverage IoT technology mainly to collect data during the surgical procedure. This helps in preoperative planning and offers feedback that improves surgical precision. It also minimizes the risk of complications, minimizes patient recovery time, and improves surgical outcomes.
IoT plays a vital role in drug management. IoT-based dispensers and smart pill bottles let patients know their medication time, minimize missed doses, etc.
These devices can notify healthcare professionals, especially when patients miss their medications, allowing timely intervention. In many hospitals, IoT-based drug management systems help ensure the storage of medications at the right temperature and humidity. This is useful in maintaining both safety and efficacy.
IoT-powered health diagnostics have transformed preventive care. Devices like blood pressure cuffs, ECG monitors, pulse oximeters, etc., can track various important signs and transmit data to many healthcare systems. This allows patients to monitor their health even at home and thus minimizes the necessity of hospital visits.
These devices can properly collect data, which AI algorithms analyze to detect various potential health issues before they become critical. This ensures timely intervention and personalized treatment plans.
As we can see, there are several advantages to adopting IoT in healthcare. However, it also comes with various challenges, which adversely impact safety, effectiveness, accessibility, and more.
Data security and privacy are among the major concerns about the adoption of IoT in healthcare. Devices enabled with IoT can collect and transmit huge amounts of sensitive data related to patient information, making them a prime target for cybercriminals.
So, healthcare providers need to implement data encryption, regulatory compliance, secure access protocols, etc. These are essential to ensure the safety of patient data. Even a single security breach tends to expose personal health data, causing a loss of patient trust and costly repercussions.
Integration of different IoT devices with different communication protocols can create another significant challenge. Many IoT devices are available from several manufacturers.
Each generally uses different protocols and data formats. Interoperability across these multiple devices and ensuring smooth data exchange with various healthcare systems, including electronic health records (EHRs), is necessary but complex.
The healthcare ecosystem risks fragmentation without a standard approach. It also affects patient care and potential miscommunications.
We are aware that IoT devices churn out vast amounts of data. So, managing them effectively and accurately is indeed quite a challenging task. When the system becomes overloaded, it tends to cause delayed responses or even missed alerts.
Meanwhile, any inaccuracies in sensor data or device ratings can impact treatment and diagnosis. Healthcare providers require cutting-edge data analytics tools and various filtering mechanisms to handle data efficiently.
Implementing the Internet of Things in healthcare infrastructure requires huge investments in various forms, such as data storage, software, hardware, cybersecurity, and more. For different healthcare facilities, especially those small, this can be prohibitive.
Besides, the continuous necessity of software updates, personal training ads, device maintenance, etc., to ongoing expenses. Balancing the high upfront and also recurring costs with various tangible benefits of IoT adoption is indeed the biggest hurdle.
The future of IoT in healthcare seems bright, with numerous transformative benefits for the upcoming generation. IoT-enabled devices can provide real-time health monitoring, personalized care, early diagnosis, etc.
Patients can use implantable sensors, wearables, smart home health systems, and more to manage their chronic conditions and detect health issues as early as possible.
Apart from this, AI and IoT-powered data analytics offer insight into preventive care and transform patient management. Improved data security and interoperability can also ensure a seamless healthcare ecosystem, which lets healthcare providers provide care remotely and with higher efficiency.
At Moon Technolabs, we have vast expertise in this domain and offer efficient, secure, and patient-centered solutions. Our team can integrate cutting-edge technologies to connect devices for data analysis and real-time monitoring. This connectivity can improve patient outcomes and ensure remote patient care, optimized workflows, and early diagnostics.
We understand the importance of data security and thus always prioritize it. Our team takes all possible measures to ensure the safety of sensitive information while offering scalable solutions to support facility growth.
At Moon Technolabs, we work with a tailored approach that aligns perfectly with specific requirements and healthcare regulations. We work as your trusted partner.
Leverage IoT technology to enhance patient care, streamline operations, and improve health outcomes with expert solutions from Moon Technolabs.
So, you can see the potential of IoT in modernizing healthcare services and its numerous advantages. If you are yet to adopt this technology for your healthcare services, it’s the right time to do so.
You can approach us as we have vast experience in this field. With us, you can get a variety of IoT healthcare solutions. We create tailored apps that can match your specific needs by analyzing your pain points, market scenarios, client expectations, etc.
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Jayanti Katariya is the CEO of Moon Technolabs, a fast-growing IT solutions provider, with 18+ years of experience in the industry. Passionate about developing creative apps from a young age, he pursued an engineering degree to further this interest. Under his leadership, Moon Technolabs has helped numerous brands establish their online presence and he has also launched an invoicing software that assists businesses to streamline their financial operations.
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