Internet of Things In Healthcare: Its Applications, Benefits, And Challenges

The healthcare industry is already struggling to provide healthcare services equally to everyone. Even more, while the global population is aging and suffering from the number of chronic diseases, healthcare services and solutions are becoming costlier.

Undoubtedly, we are entering into a world where the best healthcare practices are out of reach for a large section of society. As a result, more people are prone to chronic diseases.

We all know that technology can’t stop people from aging, as of now. However, healthcare automation solutions can at least make hospitals, clinics more accessible to the people.

Everywhere you see, technology is changing industry to industry, advancing them phenomenally. The healthcare industry is also witnessing rapid technological changes; IoT (Internet of Things) is one change driving and demonstrating healthcare business at the next level for the next generation.Internet of things in healthcare - applications, benefits, and challenges

The Internet of Things in healthcare is boon for us! The market size of the mobile healthcare industry will reach $60 billion by 2020. Moreover, if we believe in reports;

“In 2018, 75% of US consumers in a survey supported technology in managing their health.”

The IoT market is producing the number of healthcare betterment opportunities; many big Internet of Things healthcare companies offer various healthcare applications that somehow supports the aging of human.

On the other hand, a few best healthcare software development companies in the USA are into healthcare app developments, healthcare applications, patients gateway, healthcare process management, IoT based mHealth apps, Mobility & Cloud solutions, technical consulting, and many more.

Though there exist some benefits of healthcare automation solutions; especially the Internet of Things in healthcare, there are some challenges too!

In this article, we are going to describe every benefit and challenge briefly. Additionally, at the end of the article, we will also mention some of the finest IoT enabled healthcare applications in support of technology in healthcare.

What Can IoT Do For Healthcare?

We had been through Doctor-Patient interactions. Previously there was no way to keep a watch on patient health continuously. But, IoT made it possible and unleashed new potentials to keep patients safe and healthy!

Also, the Internet of Things in healthcare has improvised patient, doctor, hospital staff engagement, which made it more satisfactory for all!

“Furthermore, we also credit IoT in reducing healthcare costs while improving treatment. IoT applications in healthcare are benefiting patients, clinics, families, hospitals, physicians, and insurance companies.”

By collecting biometric data, it is now easy to identify patients, hospital staff, doctors, etc.
For patients, IoT formidably introduced the best healthcare applications like fitness bands, glucometer, calorie count, heart rate monitoring cuffs, etc.

Even more for elderly patients, IoT advancements introduced an alert mechanism system that sends signals to their family members and alerts them on their health issues.

For doctors and hospital staff, IoT enabled health monitoring equipment keeps a full track of every patient’s health effectively by collecting data and giving us real-time reports.

IoT-enabled hygiene monitoring devices help in finding out the spread of infections and prevent patients from getting infected.

These are some small examples of healthcare applications or automation solutions that tell us how prevailing is the Internet of Things in healthcare!

Internet of Things Benefits In Healthcare

Indeed, it is true that the proliferation of healthcare-specific IoT products has already opened many immense opportunities. At the same time, the huge amount of data generated by these internet-connected devices have guts to transform healthcare.

IoT is continuously redefining healthcare by offering better care, reduced costs, improved treatment outcomes, better healthcare processes, improved performance, and satisfactory patient experience.

The major benefits of the Internet of Things in healthcare are as follows:
Real-time Reporting And Monitoring via internet devices now save lives by alerting on emergencies like asthma attacks, the heart fails, diabetes, etc. Internet-connected devices collect real-time health data, report it to doctors and hospital staff.

“According to the study from the Center of Connected Health Policy, there was a 50% decrease in readmission rates of heart failure patients.”

The IoT devices are smart, intelligent, collect, and transfer health data such as blood pressure, sugar levels, oxygen levels, weight, and ECGs. The data storage is on Cloud, health firms collect it, and hospitals monitor the patients accordingly.

Internet of Things automates patient healthcare through Healthcare Mobility Solutions, new technologies, and next-generation healthcare facilities. Also, the data and information exchange in healthcare makes the services delivery more effective, reduce cost, give better quality resource, and improve future healthcare planning.

“Healthcare software development companies in USA use Bluetooth LE, Z-wave, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and other modern healthcare personnel protocols to innovate more revolutionary ways of patients treatment.”

Internet of Things healthcare device sends vast and big data in a short time, which is only manageable if Cloud is available. Collecting, reporting, and analyzing data in real-time make healthcare data sorting easy.

In addition, it also helps in decision making by using healthcare analytics. Therefore, it leads us to another benefit: Tracking And Alerts, which is simply possible will data analytics, data integrity, healthcare data transfer protocol, and real-time intelligent IoT enabled decisions for providing on-time treatment.

Now, if we talk about the cases of emergencies, then smart healthcare apps are the go-to solutions. Whereas, the Internet of Things in healthcare applications are highly focused on improving patient treatment quickly and affordably.

That’s why healthcare automation solutions will more a more significant role in the upcoming time.

Finally, the Healthcare Research and statistical data study in support of medical tech trends & advancements! Since IoT enabled devices are able to collect and store every disease, emergency data, the research has gotten stronger while enhancing the assistance to the patients.

Thus, IoT is not only saving time but puts a great impact on research. As a result, better products will launch from 2020 onwards, enhancing the quality of healthcare services.

However, there are few challanges in the IoT enabled healthcare software solutions. The major challenges are described below.

Internet of Things Challenges In Healthcare

Data Security & Privacy is the greatest threat to IoT devices that transmit data in real-time. However, despite data protocols and standards, cybercriminals can hack into the system, make fake Id’s and compromise patient healthcare information along with other information.

Not only these, but the hackers can file fraudulent insurance and claim in patients’ names.

Moreover, there are many Multiple Devices & Protocols, which upon integration implement IoT in a more advanced fashion in the healthcare sector. But, the non-uniformity of all the connected devices sometimes slows down the data processing and reduces the scope of scalability in healthcare!

The slow data speed now causes hindrances, increases the risks of Data Overloading, ultimately affects the quality decision-making.

All these technological advancements can be solved by collaborating new technologies to yield out the latest healthcare automation solutions!

But, as we are becoming more dependent on technology in healthcare, a large section of society is unable to get good healthcare facilities due to an Increase in Cost.

Surprisingly, healthcare software development companies around the world aren’t focussed on facilitating poor sections of the society with heavenly-classified IoT healthcare solutions.

“But, it seems only those who have money can take upon such costly measures to save their lives.”

The situation is such that the healthcare facilities are getting more closer to a certain section while getter far from one section. And the Internet of Things in the healthcare industry came into action with the aim of equalizing the healthcare services to all the sections of society.

Therefore, distributing advanced healthcare services equally to all in terms of money and time is a challenging task. And these next-generation Internet of Things healthcare applications will bridge the gap between all sections of society!

Applications Of IoT In Healthcare

To see the rise of the Internet of Things healthcare companies working hard is exciting for everybody as it also creates scope of use in other sectors. In Healthcare, there are several applications which can be astonishing to first hear and relaxing to use.

Below are some internet of things in healthcare applications:

  • Bluetooth-enabled weight scale and blood pressure cuff with a symptom tracking app for Cancer treatment.
  • Continuous Glucose Monitoring Device
  • Fitness Tracking Bands
  • Heart Rate Monitoring Cuffs
  • Hand Hygiene Compliance
  • Hearables – A new age hearing aid to compromise hearing loss
  • Ingestible Sensors – Pill-sized sensors to monitor the medication within our body
  • Moodables – Mood enhancing IoT devices
  • Healthcare Charting like Audemix to reduce manual and paperwork

These applications or IoT connected healthcare devices aren’t till found harming the human body in any way. Thus, it is not wrong to tell that the Internet of Things in healthcare is a boon for human society with more benefits, some challenges, and extensive examples of applications.

In other words, IoT is helpful, and by 2022 will become a significant part of patient treatment and diagnostics. All hail to the healthcare software development companies who are putting their efforts into providing secure health-related facilities.

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