The need of Internet of things in Healthcare
The technology never replaces humans as the ultimate decision-making authority lies with an individual. Humans can optimize these technological solutions that can simplify their work and bring efficient result.
These three words- convenience, Efficiency, Automation is the mixture of one thing i.e. IoT. It is the technology that has been generating a buzz in every industry, along with the health care Industry. IoT is a game-changer technology that seeks to connect with any device with an on and off switch to the net and captures monitor data on the devices that are connected to the cloud for sure to make a good impact in Healthcare Industry.
The modest beginning of IoT in healthcare can be easily traced for the use of remote monitoring, smart sensors and medical device integration as well as wearable biometric sensors, medication dispensers, glucose monitors, and smart beds.
Why Healthcare Needs IoT?
To Turn Data into Actions: The quantified health is a need and will be the future of the healthcare industry because health which is miserable can be improved better. Therefore, it is good to take advantage of quantified health technology. We all know that data affects the performance so, for object measurement and tracking of health for better outcomes is the reason why we need of IoT.
To Improve Patient Health: what if the wearable device connected to a patient can explain to you when his heart-rate is going haywire or patient has lagged behind in taking good care of himself and these all information can easily be shared on other devices that use used while working? By updating your personal health data on the cloud and eliminating the need to feed it to EMRs, Internet of things has ensured that every single detail is taken into consideration to make the best advantageous decisions for the patients.
To Promote Preventive Care: Prevention has become a primary area of focus in this industry as expenses of healthcare are projected to grow unmanageable in the future. The widespread access to the real-time and high fidelity data on the individual’s health that will reform healthcare by helping patients and prevent them from the diseases.
To Enhance Patient Satisfaction and Engagement: Internet of Things can increase the satisfaction of patient by optimizing the surgical workflow. For example- Inform the family about the patient’s discharge. It can grow patient confidence by allowing patients to spend their time with physicians as it reduces the direct patient-physician interaction from the devices connected to the internet that are delivering valuable data.
To Advance Care Management and Engagement: It enables the care teams to connect and collect the millions of data on personal fitness from wearable like heart-rate, perspiration, temperature, sleep, and activity. The sensor-fed information can send out alerts to patients and caregivers in the real-time, so they can give triggered messaging like triggers and alerts for elevated heart-rate, etc. this will just not improve the workflow but also, ensure that all care is managed from the comfort of home.
To advance Population Health Management: Internet of things enables providers to integrate devices and observe the growth of wearable as the data captured by the device and will fill the data or otherwise missed out in EHR. Care teams can receive prioritization and use of IoT for home monitoring of chronic diseases. This is the other way that caregivers can make their presence felt in the daily lives of the patients.
Challenges to adopting IoT in Healthcare
The major challenge to acquire IoT in healthcare is storing, securing and managing Data. There are security and reliability issues along with the lack of infrastructure and training among the providers because there are many providers who lack it when data does flow freely.
The other problem is the poor internet access among the populations
The Road Ahead
Internet of things has been very popular in various industries such as civil planning, automobile, retail, etc. In healthcare, IoT will resolve many myriad problems in optimizing the way the things are done. Providers will see improved adherence to care plans with this technology. IoT will align the shared goals and reduced the costs with better health and improved experience of stakeholders in healthcare.