The Healthcare industry has always been experiencing various technological changes. From ECG to EHR/EMR, From Heart Rate monitor to telemedicine apps, the healthcare industry has been disrupted with new innovations. A recent breakthrough in the medical industry is IoT(Internet of Things). Actually, IoMT (Internet of Medical Things)! 

This new innovation has opened up the world of possibilities in Medicine. A simple medical device when connected to the internet yields magical results. It can collect invaluable data, provides extra insight into symptoms and trends. Mhealth gives mobility while telemedicine app development facilitates the remote care of patients so better care for older or incapable patients. We will see many of these kinds of applications in this article.  

Let’s cut to the chase explore the amazing Internet of medical things applications.  

Real-Time Reporting & Monitoring

Real-time monitoring through connected devices can save lives in the case of diabetes, heart failure, asthma, etc.

Medical devices collect real-time data that can be synchronized with a mobile app. It helps in sending health and other important data to the physician. In particular, IoT devices gather data like blood sugar levels, blood pressure, weight, ECGs, etc. 

One of the main advantages of these applications is that the data is stored on the cloud so any authorized person can access the patient data regardless of time, place, or device. You just need an internet connection and a smartphone. 

Hospital Management 

Other than patient monitoring, IoT can help hospitals as well. IoT devices integrated with sensors are helpful for tracking the real-time location of hospital equipment such as oxygen pumps, wheelchair, nebulizers, and other monitoring equipment. Moreover, you can also track your medical staff to know on which duty they are serving.

Hygiene monitoring devices will save patients from getting infected with infections. The Internet of things can also help hospitals in pharmacy inventory, humidity control, temperature control, and more.

Insurance Companies

There are a plethora of opportunities for health insurers using IoT. For underwriting and claim operations, they can monitor the data generated by health monitoring devices. This will help them in a big way because through these data they can identify any false claim.  

In addition, the Internet of things devices will bring transparency between customers and insurance in the pricing, claim handling, underwriting, and other risk management operations. The insurer can attract more customers by offering them incentives by using and sharing health data generated by IoT devices.

Insurers can reward loyal customers for utilizing these devices to keep track of their daily activities and adherence to treatment plans and health measures. This will aid insurers to reduce claims significantly. IoT devices can also allow insurance companies to validate claims through the data acquired by these devices.

Connected Inhalers

Asthma is one of the incurable but controllable diseases, although with IoT it can be better handled to prevent future attacks. The connected inhalers sense the various triggers that cause attack before half an hour to eight hours and notify the patient about the adverse situation(temperature, air pollen).

The mobile application connected to these smart inhalers allows the patient to monitor their respiratory problems and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) better forecast. 

The other advantage of utilizing a connected inhaler is that it notifies the patient’s consulted doctor and gives data about whether the patient is using it as prescribed or not. 

Ingestible sensors 

Some patients forget to take their medicine in their time or some knowingly avoid taking it. This could be fatal for them in the long run. IoT enables ingestible sensors to help the patients and their families to notify in case the patients forget to take medicine to take it at the wrong time. 

Also, it signals the consulted doctor as well. In the case of mental health problems, this sensor can be revolutionary as these patients avoid taking their medicine. The research has been going on for if it is possible to track chronic disease. 

Monitoring of Parkinson Disease

A patient with Parkinson’s disease needs extra care. The Internet of things can be proved to be an effective solution. Movement disorder API can identify any discontinuous footstep and instability in stride length in patients to get the pattern.

The physician monitors the data from the cloud and suggests the family of patients what to do. Also, IoT can help identify the symptoms at an early level. Researchers are working to detect FOG (A Condition of Parkinson Patient) an early stage in a more accurate way. 

Monitoring Hand Hygiene

Hand hygiene is the foremost requirement of any medical staff due to the requirement of extra care in hospitals. A carelessness in washing hands may lead to severe outcomes for the patients as well as others.

IoT enabled hand sanitizers to remind medical staff to sanitize their hand before treating any patient. As soon as any staff member goes near without the patient he or she would be notified and told to sanitize their hand.

Conclusion 

IoT in Healthcare is revolutionizing technology and it will in the future be adopted by every hospital and clinic to have extra care and seamless healthcare services. IoT solutions are cost-effective and focus on home centric patient care.  

Share your thoughts on this. We would love to hear from you about other application areas.