The Internet of Medical Things- Connected Digital Ecosystem for Healthcare

The Internet of Medical Things: Connected Digital Ecosystem for Healthcare

Technology has transformed many industries and the healthcare sector is no exception to this trend. Because of the rise of technological solutions, medical technology companies are now producing 500,000 medical devices. And because of the transformative nature of IoT services, the healthcare sector is also witnessing a rise of connectivity enhancement being applied to almost all the medical devices and all these changes together have given rise to the Internet of Medical Things.

The purging number of applications and different types of connected devices can handle every type of data related to healthcare like clinical data, patient reports, and medical records. And when all connected devices, healthcare applications and sensors, EHR systems work together, they become the Internet of Medical Things. There are many people who consider the Internet of Medical Things as only a domain-specific version of the very famous IoT services but you should know that this new platform will make a significant contribution to the healthcare sector, increasing the effectiveness. 

Here, we are going to discuss every detail that you need to know about the Internet of Medical Things and understand how you can take advantage of it.

What is the Internet of Medical Things?

The Internet of Medical Things or what is more popularly known as healthcare IoT is an interconnected infrastructure of different types of medical software, sensors, and devices that can easily communicate with a wide array of healthcare software systems. But in order to take advantage of the connected digital healthcare infrastructure, you will need to have a proper platform where you can manage and develop applications, store, access, and edit data, and even run different types of analytics as well.

From trackable connected medical devices along with RFID tags to smart IoT instruments, everything is a part of the healthcare IoT or Internet of Medical Things. Even fitness brands and Electronic Health Recorded or EHR are a part of healthcare IoT.

With the healthcare industry making a shift to digital technology, it will become crucial to own a healthcare platform that will not only help you to hold but also manage all the elements of technology.

Why is the Internet of Medical Things the next big thing in the healthcare sector?

In order to understand why Medical of Things is going to shape the future of the healthcare industry, we will first need to understand how it will benefit the doctors, MedTech manufacturers, and patients.

Real-time care

The healthcare IoT will introduce us to real-time care because, with the help of healthcare IoT, every type of data will be available in real-time. This will promote error-free, effective, and better medical care to all the patients. It will also minimize the response time for medical practitioners.

Improved healthcare analytics

Since healthcare IoT will provide data from different types of medical devices and reports, medical practitioners will be able to create a giant pool of data that will help in big data analytics. This authentic and updated pool of data will be then utilized for big data analytics in order to get better insights and patterns.

Better management of chronic diseases

Through healthcare IoT, the remote monitoring of all the patients will become easier for medical practitioners and this is why keeping tabs on the drug intake and dietary habits will become very easy. This type of monitoring will help in better management of chronic diseases.

Uniformity of available data

Since data from different devices and applications will be used together, the standardization of data will become new normal for Medtech manufactures and this will ease the process of data management, analytics and it will also promote uniformity of data while manufacturing medical devices.

The potential of healthcare IoT

Some of the most talked-about capabilities of healthcare IoT are accuracy, reduced cost, and better response time. And as healthcare IoT will be paired with modern smartphone devices, the effectiveness of this advanced healthcare platform will increase by many folds because patients will be able to send the information directly to doctors.

In a study conducted by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, it was found that the Fitbit device is able to evaluate patients of ischemic heart disease in a much more effective manner as it can record heart rate and track other activities more accurately. Because of such a level of accuracy, it is being estimated that more than 88 % of the medical practitioners are investing in different types of remote patient monitoring solutions.

Another major reason for healthcare IoT becoming a new normal in the future is its cost-saving ability. There was a report published by Goldman Sachs regarding the Internet of Medical Things and in that report, it was found that the whole healthcare industry will be able to save $300 billion only by moving to remote patient monitoring and improved accuracy with the help of the Internet of Medical Things.

Connected Devices, Connected Hospitals, and connected patients

With the introduction of healthcare IoT, connected hospitals, devices, and patients will become a new normal. And with such a high level of connectivity among all the entities of healthcare, we will only witness better changes in the future.

Under connected hospitals, remote monitoring operation of beds in hospitals will become possible and doctors will get important signs for anomaly detection and this will act as one of the most significant improvements. Along with this, optical devices, ultrasound scanners, surgical equipment, and all other things will be connected with each other. Even big data intelligence services will further facilitate connected hospitals.

Talking about connected devices, medical practitioners will get a single platform for tracking and managing different types of devices and that’s why the medical practitioners will become more efficient and will be able to save time as well. Along with this, predictive analytics and maintenance will also improve the practices in healthcare. Advanced services like big data intelligence services will bring the different types of devices more close.

When it comes to connected patients, then IoT enabled high-end devices with the integration of different types of cloud, mobility, and sensors along with remote access and diagnosis will help the patients as well. And when the healthcare IoT will be connected with smartphone devices then the connected patient’s concept will become much more effective and efficient.

Regardless of the location of the different patients, the Internet of Medical Things is going to grow at a fast pace and it will be boon for all; medical practitioners, patients and even medical device manufacturers. But in order to take advantage of the healthcare IoT, Medtech companies will need to adopt new strategies and medical practitioners will have to learn how to take advantage of services like big data and IoT.

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