Healthcare is perhaps one of the industries that can benefit  most from becoming a connected space, filled with IoT based solutions.  But is healthcare ready to become a fully connected space, led by smart  devices and even smarter spaces? We’re not sure. The potential is there,  of course, and you have some great consumer-led applications and  software products coming to market which will join the dots up more  easily. 

How affordable these technologies are and the triggers for  mass-adoption and education for our existing healthcare professionals is  yet to be seen. Sure, your new med student probably learns about  fitness trackers, biometric sensors and other IoT enabled healthcare  devices while still in the classroom. Your 50-year-old neurosurgeon  however, has perhaps, not had time. 

In this post, we take a look at the four crucial areas we believe  will be essential to healthcare’s coming of age into a fully connected  space, both in the hospital and beyond. 

1. Consumer devices the patient already owns

Making up the connected space as a whole, are all of your individual  parts, namely your medical devices and smart items such as wearables  which double up as healthcare devices. 

For example, the Withings activity tracker or the Apple iWatch, which  can use alerts to tell users when they’ve been sitting down for too  long. 

This blurs the line between a clinical health solution (something you  would use only under the supervision of a doctor) and something you can  take charge of yourself. Then you have devices like QardioCore,  an ECG monitor designed to provide continuous medical grade data while  fitting your lifestyle. This device is said to help reduce high blood  pressure, high cholesterol and be an aid for anyone predisposed to  diabetes, heart troubles or weight gain. 

With these types of devices on hand we no longer have to wait for  clinical diagnoses. We can monitor, adapt and improve our health alone.  This could lead to a viable self-care model, where monitoring and  prevention is better than cures and long waits in the medical room.

2. Adoption and ownership of connected healthcare devices

Of course, the onus on consumer health applications is that the  consumer (us) has to take charge of them. How many times has your Apple  iWatch bleeped to ask you to move and you’ve ignored it while studiously  continuing your work? There’s a need for the joining up of  consumer-grade technology, how these ‘plug into’ treatment plans and how  the consumer becomes educated and accountable for using them. 

Many of us know we should exercise more right? Just because you can  track your step count doesn’t necessarily mean you’re on the path to  improve it. Many studies on self-efficacy cite a substantial gap between recording information and changing behavior. 

Within the healthcare connected space there are barriers to entry  such as lack of time, money and education. Within our homes, the problem  becomes even more widespread. This is where we see a gap between  marketing and education on the products and how they contribute to  health. 

There are programs being developed where, rather than enabling  patients with a fitness tracker and letting them be on their way, they  become ongoing support groups. These involve weekly meetings, where  patients receive guidance on health-related issues, led by data from the  wearable devices they’ve been equipped with.

3. Open-source IoT platforms for healthcare

Recent research from Accenture  suggests that IoT devices and software enabled for the detection or  treatment of medical problems will save the U.S. healthcare system more  than $100 billion in the next four years.

But can current healthcare facilities afford them in the first place?  This is where we see the benefit of open-source IoT platforms and  consumer grade hardware and software making the biggest difference.

For example, Kaa  is an open-source IoT platform, allowing healthcare system integrators  to establish cross-device connectivity and implement smart features into  medical devices and related software systems. This joins up the need to  deploy systems which can easily be implemented into our hospitals and  the devices we already know and use. Again, taking down a barrier to  entry that would otherwise make IoT a possibility that only the rich can  afford. 

Take digital signage as another example. In the past, digital screens  in healthcare were a luxury most hospitals couldn’t afford. Setting  just one screen up was hard work. It involved someone technical, a  commercial-grade screen (expensive), clunky software that was difficult  to change or the old favorite; a DVD player nailed to the wall, playing  the same content on loop.

Today you have consumer-grade TV monitors, either smart TVs or  regular TVs paired with $40 media players and cloud-based digital  signage content (like ScreenCloud),  with access to tools that make content production easy. This allows  anyone, from anywhere, to upload content such as PDFs, images, videos  and presentations onto any screen. The benefits of this within healthcare are huge and could do everything from reduce patient stress and perceived wait time, to better share crucial information with doctors. 

This type of consumer-grade technology, as well as open source IoT  platforms, will allow hospitals to better serve patients and for  patients to better understand their healthcare systems. 

4. Adoption outside of the traditional healthcare space

Companies such as Zanthion  are positioned not to help doctors better analyze healthcare issues,  but to help real people look after their loved ones and track medical  data and concerns from wherever they are. These smart devices are deployed in the home or a care home, carry sensors that track data, can notify others in the event of an emergency and analyze trends and recurring issues in order to aid prevention. This isn’t a system  designed for in-hospital care; it’s one that’s looking to take the  connected healthcare space and place it anywhere. Whether that’s in our  homes, our parents’ care homes or even our daughter’s crib.  

There are also systems of IoT devices being developed that can be  used to share patient biometric data and care plans after they have been  discharged from hospital. For example, diabetes management programs, or  medical dispensing services which live firmly in the home rather than  the hospital. 

Four areas, one connected healthcare service

Fundamentally, wearables and other healthcare IoT devices aren’t out  to replace doctors. They’re an aid against the work of human-to-human  connection and learning. Only then might we see a true adoption between  the devices, the information, the action and the patient who needs  them. 

An insight into the smart systems, software and applications leading IoT in healthcare for better patient care, more connected spaces and improved health.

We look at how information, software and smart devices join up to create one consistent connected healthcare vision.

Four Areas Crucial to the Adoption of Healthcare’s Connected Space

Four Areas Crucial to the Adoption of Healthcare’s Connected Space

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