Although widespread adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare is yet to happen, people related to the medical industry predict a dramatic proliferation of IoT applications into mainstream healthcare over the next five years.
The trend is primarily being driven by the advent of new technologies, which is pushing the prices of medical devices down and widening the scope of IoT applications increasingly.
IoT will enable the healthcare industry to make data-driven decisions that will significantly enhance the engagement with the patients. It will help in improving the quality of healthcare services through real-time insights.
Explained below are some of the innovative use cases of IoT in healthcare.
Applications of IoT in Inventory Management
When it comes to IoT-powered inventory management, there’s a lot to learn from e-commerce biggies like Amazon. The good part is that the healthcare industry is rapidly learning to put them into practice in a meaningful manner.
The prominent benefits that the healthcare units can garner from IoT are in application domains. Domains like control of critical inventory such as pharmacy in the warehouses. This will streamline the input process, and provide a steady supply line of inventory with optimal utilization of resources.
Healthcare professionals, industry analysts, as well as various surveys opine that there will be a dramatic increase of IoT applications in the management of hospital inventory in the recent future.
Healthcare IoT For Optimized Workflow
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Despite the fact that the retail industries have been applying the concept of RFID for about a decade, surprisingly, it failed to gain much traction in the healthcare industry even till this date.
However, the radically declining price points of IoT-enabled devices and the easy availability of improved connectivity and reliable wireless infrastructure will play a vital role in driving the demand for RFID in the healthcare space.
Adoption of the technology will further accelerate, if a clearer perspective is presented about the value proposition of connected devices. Healthcare IoT devices like ID badges and wristbands enable hospitals to manage their throughput efficiently.
The influx of data from these devices can facilitate an in-depth analysis of the throughput. It can help hospitals with practical solutions for critical bottlenecks faster than traditional methodologies like time studies used in the past.
Healthcare IoT and Device Integration
Institutions like JFK Health System are already integrating in-home medical devices like blood pressure cuffs, glucometers, and fitness gadgets such as the Fitbit. These devices drive vital patient data into the healthcare delivery system, which ensures improved medical services through more informed decision-making.
Automated collection and efficient storing of patient’s vital signs directly into the electronic medical record [EMR], can enable innovative technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and analytics to leverage cutting-edge solutions to the end-user, such as remote monitoring and assistance.
The increased role of smart applications and intelligent people like data scientists can bring about the much-awaited change that can transform today’s hospitals into next-generation infrastructure.
These healthcare units, in a connected ecosystem, would be able to deliver impeccable medical services through optimized utilization of vital data, which can save valuable lives and serve people in a better way.