Future Of IoT Applications In Healthcare 2021-2022
The COVID-19 pandemic presented a much-needed sanity check for IoT-inspired structures and solutions. IoT solutions such as exclusive health monitoring and contact tracing rendering support for authorities to control the coronavirus spread successfully.
The theory of the Internet of things, or as we call it – IoT has driven our lives by a blow over the preceding few years. The only physical devices or things that you could connect to the Internet were your PC or laptop and your smartphone in the past. Nevertheless, with the arrival of IoT, various devices in the comparable home, including numerous household devices, can now be connected to the Internet.
Given that it is a new technology and has already commenced exercising over considerable chunks of our lives, IoT’s future scope resembles to be bright and diverse. An aging community, growing Population, costly medical assistance, and outdated healthcare infrastructure have all increased the demand for IoT.
This article produces the first comprehensive review of critical IoT solutions that have affected COVID-19 in Healthcare, connection tracing, and transport during the pandemic. Each division is investigated in-depth, and also the inherent applications, social and economic impact, and mass evolution barriers are discussed.
The below-mentioned description will provide the in-depth summary and categorization of sector-wise IoT technologies, which can be pre-eminent applications in the new normal. IoT applications in each chosen sector are rated for their potential economic and social influence, the timeline for mass conversion, and Technology Readiness Level (TRL).
In addition, this article describes potential research directions for next-generation IoT applications that would facilitate enhanced performance with preserved privacy and security and more comprehensive adaptation by the population at large.
What Is IoT, And How Does IoT Work?
First of all, let us understand what exactly is IoT and how it works. IoT stands for The Internet of Things. IoT is also referred to as the Internet of Everything (IoE) in other words. In manageable terms, the IoT can be explained as a network of interconnected devices.
The IoT consists not of separate tools but the entire ecosystem of interconnected devices. These devices are equipped with multiple sensors and processors that concede information from encompassing circumstances and are sent over the network.
The Internet of Things uses numerous illustrations – from intelligent thermostats and bulbs to car trackers and even health monitors.
The method can also automatically execute inevitable claims based on predefined user inclinations with no social communication. The following option is called the machine-to-machine (M2M) interface.
The subsequent action of their development is an invasion into other businesses, including healthcare.
IoT in the healthcare industry has more potential all over the world than in any other sector. The merger of IoT and healthcare will be immersed in the health care infrastructure.
Recently, the healthcare sector has shown brisk growth and has been a significant contributor to revenue and employment. A few years ago, the human body’s analysis of diseases and abnormalities was only possible after having a physical examination in the hospital.
Most patients have to linger in the hospital throughout their treatment period, this situation results in an extended health care cost and wrenches the health care facility in rural and remote locations.
The technological progress achieved through these years has now conceded many diseases and health monitoring utilizing miniaturized devices like smartwatches.
Moreover, technology has transformed a hospital-centric healthcare system into a patient-centric approach. For example, many clinical examinations, such as measuring blood pressure, blood glucose level, pO2, level, etc., can be monitored at home without any help from a health care expert.
Further, the clinical data can be given to health care centers from remote areas with the help of high-level telecommunication services. The use of such communication services in connection with the rapidly growing technologies (e.g., machine learning, extensive data analysis, Internet of things (IoT), wireless sensing, mobile computing, and cloud computing) has developed the accessibility of healthcare facilities.
IoT has enhanced independence and diversified the ability of the human to interact with the external environment. IoT, with the help of futuristic protocol and algorithms, became a significant contributor to global communication. It connects many tools, wireless sensors, home appliances, and electronic devices to the Internet.
A study done by Statista proves that the installation of more than 160 million healthcare IoT devices was seen by the year 2020. When people address the exponential growth of IoT lately and in the near future, it isn’t an exaggeration: the global business for IoT is expected to grow by 2025. In other words, IoT is here to stay, and it will be indispensable in the future.
The IoT applications can be found in agriculture, automobiles, home, and Healthcare. The growing demand for the IoT is due to its success in showing higher accuracy, lower cost, and predicting future events.
The IoMT has streamlined methods and enhanced the patient experience. IoT technology has unquestionably improved healthcare, beginning with the before-mentioned revolutionary discoveries as glucose monitoring, depression and mood monitoring, Parkinson’s condition monitoring, correlated inhalers, contact lenses, automated insulin delivery, and more.
Patients benefit from assistance, more robust engagement, and more infrequent in-person medical appointments. Providers have obtained added accurate data, more trustworthy diagnoses, and more productive time management.
Further, expanded knowledge of software and applications, the up-gradation of mobile and computer technologies, easy accessibility of wireless technology, and the enhanced digital economy have added to the rapid IoT revolution. The IoT devices (sensors, actuators, etc.) have been integrated with other dynamic devices to control and exchange information using various communication protocols such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), etc.
Aiming to maximize the employability of IoT in health care practices, many countries have embraced new technology and policies. This acceptance molded the current research in the healthcare sector into a more advantageous field to explore.
In future IoT can help make healthcare more efficient, accurate and cheaper. It can also help in developing more patient oriented and customised equipment. Moreover, IoT will also help patients to have hassle free visits to the hospitals, easy treatments, access to more and more information, it will also help enable people to get better access to data, to give personalised care and in result patients will have fewer visits to the hospitals.
The IoT framework utilized for healthcare applications aids in integrating the advantages of IoT technology and cloud computing with the field of medicine. It also lays out the treaties for transmitting the patient’s data from numerous sensors and medical devices to a given health care network.
The topology of an IoT is the adaptation of different components of an IoT health care system/ network that connects the healthcare environment coherently. A basic IoT system contains three elements: publisher, broker, and subscriber.
A system of wirelessly correlated physical devices that exchange data has changed the healthcare industry is known as IoT — and it shows no signs of stopping.
Healthcare IoT, also associated with the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), has enabled remote patient care, advanced hospital and pharmaceutical procedures, and enhanced data accuracy. In- hospital hygiene monitoring tools help prevent patient infections, whereas IoT devices in hospitals aid in controlling refrigerator temperatures, expediting emergency care, and things of that nature.
Outside of medical amenities, patients wear heart rate informants, blood pressure monitoring bands, and glucose monitoring mechanisms give a few examples that feed results to their doctors.
These technological progressions have been unique, and it is developing very aggressively.
How The Healthcare System Utilizes The IoT Platform:
The chances for other IoT development swarms currently as already, it is expanding in the applications areas of emergency care, insurance practices, and pharmacies.
As explained above, an IoT unit can be acknowledged as a device with a sensor that can communicate with the natural world and send information to the Internet.
In the healthcare industry, these tools can assemble various patient data and obtain information from health practitioners. An IoT in Healthcare example is constant glucose monitoring for insulin pens that operate e?ciently for patients with diabetes.
All these devices can interact with each other and take necessary procedures that would provide convenient aid or even save a life. For instance, IoT healthcare equipment can execute rational judgments like calling the healthcare facility if an older adult has fallen down. After accumulating passive data, the IoT healthcare device would convey this crucial message to the cloud so that doctors can work upon it — observe the general patient status, see if requesting an ambulance is inevitable, what sort of remedy is needed, and so on.
Thus, the Internet of Things Healthcare can significantly increase a patient’s well-being and aid in dangerous circumstances and the productivity of health representatives and hospital workflows.
Let’s learn how the approach has been so far in each considered area and the possibilities for continued progression.
Emergency Medical Attention:
IoT advances have significantly reduced emergency room wait times. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, infrared sensors, and computer vision accumulate real-time data about hospital bed availability. This revolution helps identify patients who no longer need emergency rooms and move them from emergency to observation rooms. However, this makes it easy to make space for those who need admission urgently.
The same data also assists Emergency Medication Technicians (EMTs) who bring patients to hospitals. If EMTs comprehend that one hospital lacks patient beds, they can reroute to another hospital with capacity.
In addition to assisting in bed availability, infrared sensors trace the blood supply and samples available at the hospital. This data also aids EMTs in acknowledging the best facility to take a patient to.
Upon entering a crisis room and enrolling, patients receive IoT-enabled ID wristbands that trace them through each step of their visit. This assists facilities analyze how long patients spend in each part of the method to uncover areas in need of healing.
The prospect of emergency medical care could include similar technology in the form of an IoT- enabled badge that controls blood pressure, pulse, body temperature, and respiratory rate. If a patient abruptly spikes a fever while expecting to be seen, the badge will send a sign to notify the medical team.
The Below-mentioned Factors Are Driving The Rapid Growth Of The IoT Market
1. Growing Demand For Remote Patient Monitoring
Two trends make this factor: the increase in chronic diseases (particularly asthma, diabetes, or cancer) and the maturing population. According to the report presented by the United Nations, 2.1 billion people on Earth will be aging by 2050. Since elders tend to have more health conditions, installing the IoMT devices on their phones with software applications by top software companies can assure safety and alert emergencies.
2. High Healthcare Expenses
Healthcare is getting more costly and, at times, even unaffordable. IoMT solutions should make the industry services cheaper by preventing serious diseases, reducing the need for personal checkups, giving affordable means of continuous health monitoring, and many others. Analysts say that the selection of IoMT can help the healthcare industry save $300 billion in annual expenses.
3. Elevated Consumer Health Awareness
With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, more people have begun treating their health more carefully, ending in the burgeoning demand for efficient eHealth strategies and health devices to monitor vitals, including body temperature and heartbeat cholesterol levels, and sleep patterns, to name a few.
With this in mind, let’s move to clarify how IoMT systems work.
Innovative Medical Tools To Produce And Collect Data
According to the World Health Organization, there are approximately 2 million different kinds of medical instruments on the world market, categorized into more than 7000 generic media groups.”
The technology is developing customised software and devices that reads the data from medical cards of patients in real time and help the doctors in consulting a better analysis of patient’s health. These devices come in different styles and sizes: from home monitoring tools to insulin pumps to pulse oximeters. All of these solutions comes into the following groups:
Point-of-care devices are a wide array of diagnostic tools intended to produce results outside of laboratory environments. They are commonly used at the doctor’s office or at home to assemble and analyze examples such as blood, saliva, skin cells, etc.
Smart pills, also identified as intelligent drugs or digital pills, are small electronic devices in pharmaceutical capsules carrying ingestible sensors.
Such smart pills may perform multiple functions such as monitoring important well-being indicators (local pH, temperature, blood pressure), giving drugs to a targeted area, imaging for effective diagnosis of gastrointestinal disorders, etc.
Personal emergency response operations, sometimes known as medical alert methods, are special medical devices used to request help when an emergency event occurs via a help button. PERSs can be effective for those limited in their mobility and require emergency medical care, the elderly, for example.
Clinical-scale wearables are the IoT tools and supporting platforms certified and recommended for respective regulatory and health authorities, such as the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration). Devices in this category are commonly used at home or in clinics prescribed or advised by a physician. Their focus is essential to improve chronic conditions and diseases.
Consumer-scale wearables are different kinds of wearables for tracing critical indicators of personal wellness or fitness. They carry built-in sensors that accumulate and maintain the data every time a user does physical activities. These devices inform patients continually about their daily physical activities. Now they can even track the oxygen Level of a person very accurately. Moreover, they can also help in preventing emergencies, as patients’ information would be sent to their respective doctors or family members immediately. Although such gadgets occasionally may be used for specific health applications, the health authorities do not control most of them.
In-hospital machines and monitors range from giant devices such as MRI or CT scanners to intelligent apps that help with patient monitoring, staff and supply administration, etc. IoT can help in developing and providing functions and controllers to hospitals in the form of various essential equipment. As the equipments are critical and plays a major role while treatment, any defect in them can be proven fatal, therefore, the defects in the devices can be figured out in real time, thus, it helps reducing chances of improper treatment and on the other hand connecting these devices will help the staff of the hospital to monitor their working easily and efficiently.
Without further ado, let us look at mobile healthcare apps drifts 2021 and beyond.
Overall Benefits To The Healthcare In Future Because Of IoT
IoT in the healthcare enterprise has innumerable advantages. Nevertheless, the most important is that treatment consequences can be significantly advanced or maximized, as the data accumulated by IoT healthcare tools are profoundly reliable, permitting knowledgeable judgments. Health departments and practitioners will be proficient in lessening misunderstandings because all patient learning can be estimated immediately and transferred to a committee of doctors or a healthcare cloud program. AI-driven algorithms operating on specific IoT devices could further help make comprehensible conclusions or recommendations based on existing data.
Added prominent advantage of IoT in healthcare is lessened expenses. With IoT in healthcare, non-critical patients will be capable of staying at home. At the same time, multiple IoT tools observe and transfer all vital messages to the health department – indicating fewer hospital stays and doctor appointments.
With comprehensive data collected from quantities of IoT devices, health facilities will also be capable of improving their illness management. They’ll have more comprehensive data in real- time growing in than ever before.
Expert Surveillance And Recording:
A study shows a 50% reduction in the readmission rate of patients due to remote supervision. Real- time guidance through IoT devices can protect lives during medical emergencies such as asthma seizures, heart failures, etc. Each connected equipment can accumulate vital data on a patient’s health and transfer it to the doctor in real-time.
End-to-End Connectivity
Diversified connectivity protocols in the tools enable hospital employees to spot initial symptoms of illness in the patients. IoT can automate the workflow of patient responsibility with the guidance of healthcare mobility solutions. It facilitates interoperability, machine-to-machine interaction, information movement, and knowledge exchange while advancing healthcare delivery more prolifically.
Data Analysis
The data-driven insights will advance the decision-making method of the doctors. IoT appliances can receive, report, and interpret the vast data collected promptly, making the need for its storage. This will allow healthcare providers to focus on relevant data required to treat the patient.
Warnings And Tracking
IoT empowers medical devices to accumulate crucial data and transfer it to doctors. The summaries provide a perfect evaluation of the patient’s health, irrespective of location or time. Timely warnings can be essential in case of life-threatening conditions.
More Economical Expenses
The associated tools and wearables will allow patients to connect with doctors from their houses. Frequent visits to the hospitals for various kinds of tests and checkups will be lessened in the future. This will save the cost and time of patients daily.
Prescription Management
With the help of intelligent wireless pill bottles, tracking medication schedules will become easy. This technology will help people who forget to take their medications on time. The IoT-enabled medication supervision methods will also grant doctors analytics for advancing more high-grade care to the patients.
Drifts In Healthcare Mobile App Development
Artificial Intelligence
AI is transforming our outlook on modern-day healthcare delivery. The technology’s potential in changing the industry has placed it on the list as one of the prominent technology trends in healthcare 2021-2022.
It depicts a set of several technologies that enable machines to comprehend, sense, learn, and act like humans to the extent that they are prepared to perform many clinical and administrative healthcare functions.
The global AI in the healthcare industry market grew and attained USD 45.2 billion by 2026 from USD 4.9 billion in 2020. When we talk about AI applications in Healthcare, the AI inclusion in mobile medical apps will grow the AI healthcare market to over $6.6 Billion by the end of 2021. The fact that AI will bring innovative healthcare apps to the market is a direct sign of how businesses in the Health IT domain should prepare for intelligence inclusion.
AI is fueling the capacity to create more precise predictions about patient care and results. The augmented demand for remote medical care for routine checkups and non-pandemic care will drive increased digital visits and small care delivery.
Many healthcare units will focus on Cloud, SaaS, AI and analytics investments, and application modernization as preferences to expedite digital transformation.
Healthcare industries, including health providers, payers, care organizations, and public health agencies, embrace agile and low code development tools and methodologies as they develop for the prospect.
The adoption of cloud applications is increasing dramatically as mobile applications improve the patient experience and increase operational efficiencies.
In 2021, the topic is not whether but how we supplement AI to the mix. There is notable work to be done in engaging clinicians in using AI to improve patient results. Healthcare professionals need to know that AI and analytics processes and improvements must produce AI transparent and explainable to clinicians and patients.
2021 brings a set of notable challenges to an already stressful situation. Managing another COVID-19 surge, the cumbersome complexities of vaccine delivery, variations in care delivery, and new concession and security requirements mean that health organizations face another daunting year. The constant improvements in software, platforms, and applications will help improve this difficult situation.
However, these security concerns become even more important as we add new data elements from developments such as remote health performance and the 21st Century Cures Act.
As the rules about data blocking finally come into force, information integration, automation, and digitization are critical for providers to ensure compliance without affecting daily operations or straining already limited budgets. Yet often, the range of data required is in stained systems still held throughout the organization. However, this does not give a massive amount of time if Healthcare providers are to hit the October 2022 deadline to make all data available to patients via their chosen smartphone app.
There is no uncertainty that this act fuels a revived focus on digital engagement with patients and the rapid enactment of the HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) model. These abilities are quickly becoming table rods in highly competitive Healthcare markets.
The real-time location system (RTLS) or location technicalities to identify and track the status of an object are used within the healthcare network. It also follows the treatment process based on the allocation of available resources.
One of the most extensively used technologies is the Global Positioning System, commonly known as GPS. It makes use of satellites for tracking purposes. We can identify an object through GPS as long as there is a clear sightline between the thing and four various satellites.
In IoT, it can be employed to discover the position of the ambulance, healthcare provider, caregivers, patients, etc. Nevertheless, GPS application is only limited to outdoor applications as the surrounding foundations can block the communication between the object and the satellite.
Big Data
While already employed to a considerable extent in the EHR domain, many healthcare domains will profit highly from Big Data in 2021 and beyond, causing Big Data tech to be the most viewed technology.
To list it down, below are the Healthcare fields that will get benefited from the incorporation of Big Data in the industry;
– It will remove medication mistakes.
– It will help to lower wait time and hospital cost.
– It improves the quality of service.
– It gives greater security.
– It prevents preventive care over reactive care.
– It provides more definitive personalized treatment and medicine.
Internet Of Things
There are many motives why the Healthcare industry needs IoT advancement in the industry. Reasons range from turning data into action, improving patient health, promoting preventive care, enhancing patient engagement and satisfaction, and advancing care management.
IoT applications have previously been seeing a lot of attention from the Healthcare domain. There are many viable samples of how Healthcare is getting better with IoT; here are a few of them;
– Closed-Loop Insulin Delivery
– Movement Trackers
– United Inhalers
– Ingestible Sensors
– United Lens
Telemedicine
As per the telehealth drifts, the facility known to overcome the overall cost incurred by the hospital structure will see many new entrants in the economy. The implementation of this tech in Healthcare will aim to provide real-time patient and doctor access to prevent proper prevention before a medical emergency occurs.
AR/VR
Technology and Healthcare have developed considerably, and one of the most prominent contributing roles in healthcare mobile apps trends is augmented reality and Virtual Reality development services. The healthcare-based AR and VR business is poised to become a $5.1 Billion market by the time it reaches 2025. While the time is still too notably off, the importance of AR/VR in the Healthcare domain is already seen in multiple arenas.
The result that AR/VR has shown in Healthcare and the potential that it carries together makes Healthcare the most extensive use case of the AR/VR industry.
On the one hand, the technology helps doctors make more precise surgeries; the patients, on the other hand, profit from the virtual reality scenes that help them succeed trauma with greater ease while being in a safe environment.
Both the reasons collectively make AR/VR one of the most critical trends in healthcare app development. AR/VR is known to improve it upon all the four main healthcare areas – Diagnostic, Training, Treatment, and Rehabilitation.
Voice
Voice technology has a place in many healthcare fields. From helping the end user find the right doctor in their proximity to assisting the doctors in surgery by giving them a step-by-step checklist of the whole procedure, voice technology-based tools like Alexa and Google Homes have found a place in many hospitals and clinics.
While voice technology is transforming how patients and doctors both respond to medicine, on the one hand, on the other, the voice-based search is improving how individual doctors and hospitals are vending their services in the world.
Cloud
The Healthcare cloud computing business will grow to an approximate value of $44.93 Billion by the time we hit 2023. While cloud computing had moved beyond the Enterprise world in yesteryears, the collision required to have on the Healthcare Industry is still relatively new and yet huge.
There are many ways through which Cloud technology is known to avail Healthcare. Here is how Cloud is poised to revolutionize the Healthcare economy:
As Software Service – Cloud can render the healthcare organization a range of on-demand hosted services that would furnish them with fast access to the business applications.
Platform as a Service – Cloud can give a security-enhanced environment for web-based service and cloud application deployment.
Infrastructure as a Service – The cloud solutions can provide on-demand computing and storage for a medical facility.
Advantages Of Mobile Health Apps Lessened Risk Of Errors
Medical professionals require access to many kinds of clinical sources to make precise diagnostic judgments. With the aid of mobile health apps, doctors and nurses can access medical and data, lab results, etc., within a minute. They furthermore can utilize smartphones and apps for drug reference guides, clinical rules, and other decision support aids. Informed medical choices take down the error rate and improve practice productivity and information. On the patient’s side, they can get an early warning to discover complications and plan their treatment correctly.
Streamlining Clinical Methods
As per the research, the IoT healthcare business will reach $188.2 billion by 2025; it is evident that medical specialists are putting supplies into the innovative healthcare apps and healthcare app ideas to bring an extensive change in the industry. Moreover, the IoT alliance with Healthcare has given an approach to maintaining the resources. The medical staff can also keep a check on their outstanding stocks effectively and systematically preserve them.
A Healthy Lifestyle
As more individuals become conscious about maintaining a sound and healthy lifestyle, innovative healthcare apps are the most famous health applications. With the cutting edge and high-level digital accessories, smartwatches, health apps, and fitness trackers are intended to empower individuals to remain fit, eat healthily, and improve their sleep cycle. These health apps allow users to follow their management, weight, food intake, pulse, heart rate, calorie consumption, and other personal information. Users who utilize these applications can share this information with their fitness coaches or associates to get more guidance and support.
Hurdles And Solutions
It shouldn’t appear as astonishment that cost is the biggest hurdle when businesses attempt to implement an IoT approach, but simply declaring “It’s too expensive” and doing nothing is no longer an alternative. The recommendation is that the organizations begin small, learn quickly, and grow out with remarkable quick successes.
Everyone has to monitor hazardous circumstances, so why don’t you start in the built space environment? Perhaps talk about monitoring devices or things that are extremely obvious and straightforward to implement and explain that they would be successful.
Winding Up
So above-mentioned was some information and trends that will define the Healthcare market in 2021 and beyond. We hope to perform at the back of these upcoming trends in a Health and care economy that is more prudent than reactive and more human-focused than revenue-focused.
Since it is an advanced digital era, you can also opt for expert agencies without thinking much about the distance. For example, suppose you stay in the European region. In that case, you can look for a healthcare app development company in the USA or a healthcare mobile app development firm in other states.
IoT in the healthcare industry does not survive alone. All IoT tools and their systems need to be merged with di?erent technologies to improve healthcare facilities’ transformation significantly. As discussed before, IoT will reform the healthcare industry, although it also requires data, high- speed connection, and conventional safety and acquiescence.
5G will implement the ultra-low latency activities and versatility that the IoT in the healthcare industry demands. In turn, AI-driven resolutions will secure a sense of the data ponds assembled from various methods. Big Data will apply such AI algorithms to interpret data in real-time and gain significant health judgments. Virtualization will benefit from reducing or getting relieved of old infrastructure in hospitals.
IoT is already practicing most of these technologies to assist healthcare in developing, and this development will proceed. Promptly than later, healthcare and the Internet of Things will become intertwined, ultimately modifying how we approach our healthcare.
We, at Hyperlink InfoSystem, grant businesses and their healthcare workforce, including cutting-edge transformative clarifications and data-driven penetrations.
With advancements in technology occurring every day, the opportunities for enhancing care, operational efficiencies, and patient well-being through IoT are everlasting. IoT is the future, so start to develop and implement your IoT strategy now.
