Technology and innovations have transformed various organizations and manufacturers.

The need for IoT healthcare has all been exacerbated by an aging population, costly medical facilities, and inadequate healthcare facilities. Inexpensive and progressive health care isn’t a fuzzy fantasy but a truth for the future. The IoT offers a chance to change this industry radically.

Patients and healthcare professionals have been able to track critical health metrics in real-time with IoT-enabled devices, providing a customized treatment plan for diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This use of advanced technologies increases access to treatment, enhances the standard of care, and reduces treatment costs.

The study shows that the healthcare demand for IoT is expected to rise from 41 billion in 2017 to 265 billion by 2025. This rise will be primarily driven by growing initiatives by governments and policymakers in the healthcare sector. Among the most significant and crucial industries in the technological transition, we see the IoT for healthcare.

Let’s move forward and explore the most innovative ways IoT healthcare solutions are changing today’s age of healthcare. But first, here’s a brief info about IoT.

What is IoT, and what are the benefits of IoT in healthcare?

In easy sentences, the IoT could be represented as an interconnected device network. The IoT consists not of different entities but an entire integrated device system. These systems are capable of various sensors and processors, which allow data to be obtained and sent through the networks from the external environment. Without even any human-to-human or human-to-computer contact, this cycle begins.

In different types, IoT healthcare systems have been designed. You may see different kinds of heart rate, temperature, and blood sugar level devices on the marketplace. Medical equipment can gather valuable information and give additional information about symptoms and any defects of the human body to physicians; this helps to detect problems, and physicians are willing to offer medical support sooner. For the healthcare sector, such solutions are a genuine game-changer. There are numerous benefits of using IoT in the healthcare industry. Some of them are:

Benefits of IoT in the Healthcare Industry

Increasing healthcare technology renders this sector less reliant on individuals and, at the very same time, increasingly patient-oriented. The main benefits of the IoT from which healthcare organizations will benefit are:

  • Lesser cost.
  • Better drug management.
  • Reduces mistakes and wastage.
  • Enhances treatment outcomes.
  • Affordable and convenient.
  • Enhances data reporting, collections, and tracking.

Moving on, here are some exciting ways in which IoT solutions are transforming the healthcare industry.

Top IoT solutions that are revolutionizing the Healthcare Industry

1. Equipment Tracking Systems 

For hospitals, patient and employee protection is a concern. Specific tools, namely MRIs, X-ray machines, CT scanners, and other appliances, are used by hospitals. It can become unsafe for staff and patients if this machinery is not tested regularly. The use of IoT solutions can avoid these kinds of issues. Monitoring systems for equipment will track performance problems and alert employees. Far before they eventually wind up risking medical devices’ protection, this device will find the issues.

Remote diagnostic tests, predictive analytics and maintenance, and regular performance updates are the positives of devices like this.

2. Smart Integrated Inhaler 

Asthma is an illness that isn’t easily treatable, but it is manageable by using an inhaler. A patient may notice signs of an asthma attack half-hour or eight hours earlier. The IoT healthcare solutions could offer smart solutions here. A sensor-linked inhaler will warn the patient of a primary contributor (air pollution, air temperature) to avoid an asthma attack.

Offerings and Insights 

  • Such mobile apps would make it much easier for a considerable time to fight against respiratory disease.
  • Precise current status monitoring will deter potential future threats.
  • Calculates the sensor data and recommends patients to take the appropriate steps.
  • Prevent additional hospital fees by early diagnosis.

3. Smart Contact Lenses  

The eye is an incredible human organ. To maintain its functioning, tears place a thin coating over the eye. But tears may do more to keep it operating with the support of contact lenses centered on IoT. It is possible to determine signs of different diseases by integrating a detector and contact lens, which could be an excellent IoT in healthcare.

Offerings and Insights 

  • IoT-based contact lenses may be used to measure tear glucose levels and help diagnose diabetes.
  • The adjustment in the shape of the eyeball, which is a sign of glaucoma, can be observed by a savvy contact lens.
  • Researchers are experimenting with a sensor-based contact lens to remedy presbyopia (a disorder caused by the loss of elasticity in the eye lens).

4. RFIDs

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags or transmitters are discrete components that obtain, retain, and transfer data to nearby readers using close to zero radio waves. Inside the hospital community, RFID technology has potential uses. In the surgery room, RFID allows for more detailed inventory monitors for medication and pharmaceutical products, patient and personnel monitoring, and instrument monitoring. The use of RFID tags helps hospitals to standardize procedures that waste time and enhance connectivity.

5. Smart Hearing devices 

IoT plays a wise role in healthcare, and the IoT-based hearing aid functionality is indeed popular. Nearly 466 million individuals have problems with significant hearing loss. The main aim of linking all internet-enabled devices is to make our lives convenient. A few of the attributes of IoT-based hearing aid systems are given below.

Offerings and insights 

  • Users will simultaneously listen to multiple conversations.
  • With the use of a smoke sensor, it is easy to use it as a smoke detector.
  • The light can be turned on or off from remote locations by voice order.

6. Smart Robotic Surgery 

With each day, the healthcare industry is becoming more dynamic, and with the change, analysts link devices through the internet. More specifically, doctors use IoT-driven robotic technology to perform surgical surgery. Within the patient’s body, the little automated unit will perform functions.

Offerings and Insights 

  • It provides doctors with more power and accuracy to conduct the surgery.
  • It allows the procedure to be performed from a remote area, which could save several patients both in the hospitals and the conflict zone.
  • Operations such as heart valve repair, gynecologic surgical procedures, and more are now being done.

7. Remote Patient Monitoring 

With IoT integration, remote patient monitoring will be feasible. Wearable devices with smart wearables can track the patient’s condition during the day and alert the doctors in case of emergency. Rather than hospitals or medical care centers, remote monitoring systems result in patients seeking treatment and screening in a personalized, remote location. It decreases the burden on healthcare staff who is struggling to deal with a rising volume of patients.

8. CGM (Continuous Glucose Meters)  

A CGM is a remote monitoring device approved by the FDA that monitors day and night blood glucose levels. It can also help identify trends and patterns that provide a comprehensive understanding of a patient’s problem to their doctor. A sensor is attached to the rear of an individual’s armor under the skin of your abdomen. It emits data to a display that individuals can check on the device or in a mobile phone app. The data could help a person and their doctors make the right diabetes course of treatment.

In a nutshell

In several aspects, IoT is mostly about offering a better care experience for patients. Had nobody promising, the change would’ve been quick. It will take a concerted effort from all concerned and the patients; however, IoT would eventually change the healthcare landscape for the positive, indeed.

In the area and across the globe, the IoT healthcare sector is reconfiguring healthcare systems and services. IoT technology is built to better lives, but it is a perfect way to change lives.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

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