Over the past few years, The Internet of Things (IoT) has revolutionized the computing and Information Technology industry in one of the most drastic manners. The growing IoT technology has proved its potential to bring the entire world together and present it in the grip of people's hands through interconnected devices and networks. The devices that we use in our daily life, can be connected over the internet to make the industries, educational sector, airports, and healthcare efficient and effective. The Internet of Things (IoT) has allowed numerous people across the globe to connect and share important information over networks to make this world a better place to live. Especially in the healthcare sector, the internet of things (IoT) plays an integral role in ensuring doctor-patient interaction and other health issues efficiently. With the development of IoT, remote monitoring and treatment of patients can easily be carried out by doctors. The upcoming technology has helped medical practitioners in developing a well-connected system that makes the treatment of every patient an easy and effective process. Remote monitoring of a doctor is intended to investigate the condition of health promptly. IoT also influences reducing treatment costs significantly. Therefore, it can be assumed that IoT will influence the healthcare sector to a greater extent in the upcoming years. The stakeholders associated with the healthcare sector will be greatly benefitted from the IoT. The detailed discussion about the use of IoT in the healthcare industry is elucidated below.
Discussion:A brief introduction about IoT and how it can be associated with the healthcare system all across the globe have already been discussed in the section above. Many nations have already started using the concept of IoT in their health sector, but the constant cyber attacks have made IoT in healthcare a threat. For example, let's consider the National Health Services of the UK, which is the worst impacted by the cyberattacks that happened in 2017. Therefore, combating cyber attacks is a huge challenge for IoT before it completely enters the healthcare industry. Threats some years ago were restricted to the computers, but have now become common in our handsets. The fact that devices like health bands and pacemakers carrying important health information about patients can be hacked, causing serious information leaks is one of the major concerns. The power of IoT is well-known to everyone, but it has many loopholes. The IoT has not appropriately secured handsets. Health professionals will face a huge problem when it comes to tracking, scrutinizing, and monitoring. Data breaches are another key challenge to health professionals as mobile devices' usages have been increased tenfold in recent times. Services such as file sharing and storage are strongly dependent on cloud technology, which is largely vulnerable to data breaches is also a huge problem that IoT needs to tackle before it completely takes control over the healthcare system.
The healthcare system consists of many elements, such as doctors, nurses, hospitals, health insurance, equipment supplier, and many more. IoT even plays an important role in the overall betterment of a hospital. The IoT can track the real-time location of nebulizers, wheelchairs, oxygen pumps, and medical equipment. Asset management, such as inventory control, can be managed conveniently using modern technologies such as IoT. The insurance company, on the other hand, enjoys many benefits by installing IoT in their workplace.If a successful healthcare system is designed, the patient’s health record can be made available to the insurance companies through the health monitoring devices which are used by the hospital. The data can further be used by the insurance companies while they claim the operations.The reward or any incentive can easily be offered to any insurer by optimizing this technology. Thus, we can infer that IoT acts as the savior of medical institution health professionals, physicians, and patients. Once IoT is implemented into the healthcare system in full swing, the problem of doctors not being able to visit the patient’s houses for offering treatment will be solved.
When compared to global standards, the Indian healthcare system has been lagging in various aspects. There are a few private hospitals that have already been using the IoT based supply chain to a certain extent. The private hospitals have started attending to patients sitting hundreds of miles away from the hospital. However, there is dazzling hope of implementing IoT in every hospital across the country, including the ones that are run by the government. It can be assumed that IoT enabled connectivity will facilitate the healthcare sector in a greater way. Over the coming years, the Indian healthcare system will become efficient, effective, and patient-centric if IoT is installed at a holistic level. The current situation of the Indian medical system will drastically be changed and India will be looked up to by the world as a nation with leading medical facilities.
Conclusion:The above discussion beautifully explains the practicality of using IoT in the healthcare system. It is high time that medical professionals and all other health experts must rethink the implementation of IoT in the hospital, aiming to produce more effective and efficient results. They already felt that the influence of IoT is enhancing day by day in every sphere of life. Therefore, it is important for medical practitioners and IT professionals to work hand in hand and think about the implementation process of IoT in the healthcare sector. We can conclude that IoT and connected devices are the potential future of the healthcare system. Not only IoT will assist health professionals in reducing the hospital's internal cost but would also promote better and inclusive treatment of patients in hospitals all over the world.