Smart Healthcare’ is one of the most innovative and beneficial technologies today, but IoT without the right software management tools is useless, according to Dan Teare sector director at Mpro5.
The Internet of Things is the fourth-generation technology that is most popular today. It’s certainly the most useful and it doesn’t just apply to your Alexa or Roomba devices. Healthcare, or as technobabble calls it, “smart hospitals”, is perhaps the most promising use of this tech. IoT can have a profound impact on modern healthcare if it is paired with the right sensors, digital workflow tools and other devices.
The Humber Valley Hospital in Canada is a shining example of the hospital of the future. This hospital is undoubtedly one of the most interconnected and digital examples that we have. It has a fully digital appointment schedule, a digital path lab order and results ordering, an automated Managed Equipment Service, a RIVA Chemotherapy Robot and Automated Pharmacy Systems, with three-quarters the hospital supply chain completely automated.
Although most hospitals around the world are still far from having integrated holistic, connected-up IoT systems such as the Humber River Valley hospital, there is great potential and the benefits for efficiency and customer service that can be achieved if they do. This will result in better patient care and more efficient customer service. It will also make it easier for nurses, doctors, and other facility managers to manage the facilities. Healthcare staff will be able to spend more time helping patients and saving lives if they have more tech support.
When used in conjunction with sophisticated sensor technology and an adaptable, integrated software management system, the Internet of Things can do a lot for hospitals. Air conditioning can adjust the temperature in every room based on the temperature outside and the time that the doors have been open. Cleaning regimes can be automatically adjusted to accommodate the number of people who use a room, bathroom or piece of equipment. If anything is damaged, someone will be notified and they will fix it.
IoT can be lifesaving for patients. New tech can detect and diagnose issues, such as diabetes and depression monitoring, or connect digital contact lenses to help patients.
Sensors are constantly evolving and becoming smaller and more precise. IoT can provide new insights into in-care and at home patient monitoring and care. You can choose from simple wearable technology that measures heart rate to more sophisticated devices like portable insulin systems that provide continuous monitoring and micro-injections. Smart hospitals and their patients can reap the benefits of sensor technology when they are connected by an IoT network.
There is a lot to be done with all the data generated by IoT devices and its sensors. An average person will interact with connected devices at least 4800 times per day by 2025. The world’s data volume should be 163 ZettaBytes , with most of it coming from IoT devices. A ZettaByte, in simple, but headache-inducing English is one trillion gigabytes.
All this data can’t be used without insight. Smart data management is the only way to get insight. This data lake must be accessed by software, machine learning, and AI to identify actionable events and trigger human intervention (manual intervention). Without action, data is just that: data. All the data in the world can be stored but it is useless if you don’t do anything with it.
Software transforms data into a narrative, so that operations teams can understand the problem and come up with effective solutions. The key word is simple. It should be easily accessible by everyone who needs it, with minimal specialist training. It is not realistic to expect doctors or other operations personnel to become data scientists or IT professionals. They have an extremely important job and are often limited in their ability to search through data points and find who stored what.
This means that data cannot be separated, and can only be accessed by one department. However, it must be kept safe and secure, especially sensitive medical information. It should be easy to use and adapt to the ever-changing IoT environment. Every day, new technology is discovered and added to it. It is important to remember that sensor technology is constantly evolving with new ways of measuring sight, sound and touch every day. Software that does not keep pace with the technology will be ineffective.
