What Is The Potential Of The Internet Of (Medical) Things?

By Megan Williams, contributing writer

The Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to help solve operational problems, track assets, cut costs, and collect data that can be analyzed and used to make intelligent decisions.

The potential that the IoT holds in the healthcare sector has not gone unnoticed by Shelly Kramer, Co-CEO of V3 Broadsuite and a contributor to the Dell blog. She explores some of the possibilities and obstacles healthcare faces when addressing and leveraging the Internet Of Medical Things (IoMT).

Possibilities

The IoT/IoMT has the potential to bring about more cost-effective, higher quality, better-personalized care, all while increasing patient empowerment in the following ways:

• Cost Reduction. With the U.S. spending 18 percent of its annual GDP on healthcare (a number that’s expected to rise) solutions like the IoMT become even more important. It’s been estimated that the “digital revolution” can save more than $300 billion in spending on healthcare. The Dell blog provides a breakdown of that savings (via Goldman Sachs) with the largest concrete savings opportunity falling under chronic disease management at more than $200 billion. Also worth noting is “indefinitely large” savings opportunities in the area of behavior modification in addressing disease states including obesity and smoking cessation.
• Improved Care. Devices involved in the IoT/IoMT can provide care givers and physicians with remote data including temperature, heart rates, and glucose levels that was not available in quite the same way before. The ability to automatically transmit health data can help determine risk for multiple acute and chronic issues.
• Empowered Patients. Patient empowerment is incredibly important, not only in an era of patient-centered care, but also in a time where we are beginning to understand just how much of a difference patient attitude toward treatment can impact clinical outcomes. Telehealth will be a cornerstone in this area, specifically in the way remote doctor access can be used to change behavior and encourage healthier lifestyles.

Obstacles

As with any technology in healthcare, there are obstacles to fully realizing the potential the IoT/IoMT offers.

• Hesitation Around Mobile. Healthcare is notorious for being a late adopting industry and mobile is no different. Since so much of the IoT/IoMT relies on mHealth, provider hesitation (or even confusion) has resulted in many parts of the industry struggling to handle the data that’s produced by connected health environments.
• Problems With Consistency. Standards and protocols exist for many areas in communication technology, but healthcare is a bit of an outlier in that area. Vendors haven’t yet agreed on standards, leaving viable connection between facilities and systems somewhat difficult.
• Security Issues. Security has been a focus in HIT for quite some time now, and as the IoT/IoMT picks up, the discussion will undoubtedly evolve — especially since more devices means more potential areas for security breaches and vulnerable points to cyberattacks.

Moving forward, Kramer predicts that the healthcare industry will see more security questions pop up, the cost question to become even more important, as well as the rise of “smart hospitals” and predictive medicine.

Read Kramer’s blog post at https://powermore.dell.com/technology/how-the-internet-of-things-will-impact-health-care/.