The Internet of Things (IoT) is pioneering a revolution in the healthcare sector. It is transforming the traditional way of monitoring health conditions, managing chronic conditions, and delivering care. IoT in healthcare, also known as the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), is one of the fastest-growing segments in the IoT market.
The IoT market in medical and healthcare is estimated to reach $534.3 billion by the end of 2025. This article will overview the top 10 Internet of Things healthcare devices.
Table of Contents:
What are the IoT Healthcare Devices?
IoT healthcare devices are medical devices, software, apps, and infrastructure that are connected to the Internet. These devices can include implanted medical devices, wearables, and others.
These devices can:
- Collect the healthcare data remotely.
- Automate tasks.
- Analyze data and suggest solutions.
- Create healthcare reports.
Here is the list of 10 IoT in healthcare examples:
- Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
- Glucose Monitoring
- Heart Rate Monitoring
- Hearing Aid
- Hand Hygiene Monitoring
- Robotic Surgeries
- Depression or Mood Monitoring
- Connected Inhalers
- Parkinson’s Disease Monitoring
- Connected Contact Lenses
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is one of the popular IoT applications in the healthcare sector. These IoT devices play a crucial role because they collect health metrics such as blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and others automatically. In addition, patients do not have to present at the healthcare facility.
When the remote patient-monitoring IoT devices collect data, they send it to the cloud or software applications, where the patient and healthcare professionals can view it. Therefore, if IoT in healthcare devices collect unusual data, they send an alert to notify the healthcare professional and the patient.
Remote monitoring system devices are easy to use, but the major drawback is that the data collected by them is highly personal. Keeping these data private and secure is a significant challenge for users.
Glucose Monitoring
With so many diabetes patients worldwide, it is challenging to monitor glucose levels traditionally. It is inconvenient to check the patient’s glucose level and manually record the results. Moreover, if the glucose level fluctuates massively, it is hard for healthcare professionals to detect problems and provide medication with periodic testing.
Glucose monitoring IoT in healthcare devices can ease this issue by automatically and continuously monitoring patients’ glucose levels. These devices reduce the hassle of keeping a record of glucose levels manually. Moreover, they send an alert to the patient if they sense any problem with glucose levels.
Using glucose monitoring IoT in healthcare devices makes it easier for patients to detect glucose level issues at earlier stages and take necessary medications on time.
Heart Rate Monitoring
The number of Heart patients worldwide is increasing daily. Similar to glucose monitoring, heart rate monitoring can be challenging for patients. Periodic heart rate checking does not guard against rapid heart rate fluctuation, and even conventional cardiac monitoring requires wired machines that restrict movement.
Various heart rate monitoring IoT in healthcare devices can resolve this issue. These devices can detect the pulse and heart rate. After collecting the data, these devices send it to the cloud system, which can be accessible from anywhere. Getting accurate results is challenging, but modern IoT devices are doing well in this field.
Hearing Aid
More than 400 million people worldwide struggle with progressive hearing loss. Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices such as IoT hearing aids help hearing-impaired patients and make their lives safer, better, and more accessible.
IoT Hearing Aid devices are more practical and easy for patients to use. These devices can listen to multiple sounds and conversations and focus on a single conversation in a noisy environment.
Hand Hygiene Monitoring
Hand hygiene is essential for healthcare professionals to reduce the risk of spreading contagion, viruses, and diseases. Traditionally, there has been no definite way to monitor the hands of patients and healthcare staff.
Therefore, many healthcare facilities use hand hygiene monitoring IoT devices to ensure cleanliness. These IoT devices remind people to sanitize their hands before doing a specific task or going to a room. The IoT devices can also provide instructions on how to clean hands in a particular way to mitigate the risk of contamination.
However, the main shortcoming of these hand hygiene monitoring IoT devices is that they can only remind people to sanitize their hands. These devices do not help or force people to sanitize their hands. Nevertheless, these devices are visibly impactful. They can reduce the rate of infection by 60 percent.
Robotic Surgeries
Surgery is a complex event that requires surgical tools, medical devices, and experienced and qualified surgeons. During surgeries, sometimes, a surgeon may have to perform intricate procedures that are almost impossible to manage by hand. By deploying small robot IoT devices, surgeons can perform the surgery.
In addition, IoT in healthcare devices can help perform surgeries more effectively and precisely. These devices are tiny and easy to insert, causing minimal disruption in the patient’s body. They can also easily read complex conditions and make decisions accordingly.
Depression or Mood Monitoring
The information collection of the patient’s mood and depression system is very challenging for healthcare professionals. Traditionally, healthcare professionals ask patients about their feelings periodically to determine their mental health. However, selecting the diagnosis is difficult due to mood swings and difficulty in interpreting subjective mental health conditions.
IoMT devices can gather information about the patient’s mood and overall mental health by monitoring blood pressure, heart rate, and other biometric data. The primary advantage of these IoT in healthcare devices is that they depend on biometric data. They do not rely on the person’s testimony.
The patient does not control the data and primarily serves good results. Though these devices do not fully predict depression or other mental health issues, there is no better alternative for these IoT healthcare devices.
Connected Inhalers
The primary issue with COPD, asthma, and other breathing illnesses is they involve sudden attacks. 66% of deaths caused by asthma can be prevented with care, review, better medication, and management.
IoT-connected inhalers can assist patients by monitoring the attack frequency and collecting data to help patients and healthcare professionals. They provide periodic audio and visual reminders to take medication and give insight into the causes of symptoms.
Parkinson’s Disease Monitoring
IoT technology is also used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. These IoMT devices can easily track the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and its fluctuations in severity. Healthcare professionals can easily track these fluctuations to provide proper medical assistance.
Traditionally, patients need to stay at the healthcare facility for monitoring. IoT in healthcare devices helps eliminate the chance of staying in the hospital for a prolonged time. In fact, these devices collect patient data automatically. It is a cost-saving method that helps patients live independently.
Connected Contact Lenses
IoT-connected contact lenses also provide insights into vision-related concerns. With the connected camera and sensor, IoT in healthcare devices offers better vision and forecasts the symptoms of diseases. The main issue with the eyes is that they develop eye diseases and weakness over time. Sometimes, these diseases become severe due to lack of medical attention.
Connected contact lenses can detect the early signs of diseases and some general health conditions like diabetes. Moreover, these devices can take pictures of the users for multiple purposes.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned IoT devices are beneficial for healthcare. Though privacy and security risks are still a concern, these IoMT devices positively impact the healthcare sector. As IoT technology evolves daily, we can expect more innovations that can provide accessibility and affordability in healthcare. IoT in healthcare technology makes the future of the healthcare sector data-driven, connected, and personalized.
FAQ
Q. What are 5 examples of IoT used in healthcare?
A: There are several IoT-connected medical devices in healthcare. Five examples of those IoT solutions are remote patient monitoring (RPM), glucose monitoring, heart rate monitoring, robotic surgery, and connected inhalers.
Q. How to use IoT in the hospital?
A: Medical IoT devices can be used in hospital environments to directly monitor patients, manage medical devices, track inventories, etc. Internet of Things devices can also directly monitor environmental parameters such as humidity, temperature, and air quality to prevent infection spread.
Q. What is IoT in mental health?
A: The Internet of Things is the connection between a wide range of devices and the Internet. In the mental healthcare system, doctors use several IoMT devices to monitor the patient’s mental wealth, remote sessions, and personalized assistance.
Q. What are Internet of Things IoT technologies for healthcare?
A: IoT Medical Devices are connected to other IoT devices to provide real-time data about health parameters, such as blood pressure, glucose monitoring, heart rate, and more.
