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10 Benefits of Choosing IOT for Medical and Healthcare Industry

by Biljana Denic

The healthcare and medical industry is one of the most significant industries in the globe. It has the capacity to make or break an entire country as it is associated with the most basic requirement of human beings, that of health.

As Maslow has already put forward in his Needs Theory, health is one of the most basic physiological needs of humans, therefore, requires a lot of attention. The global pandemic has also newly brought to light the significance of this industry as well as brought people close to the deteriorating condition of the medical and healthcare industry.

This is where IOT or Internet of Things come to play and save the day of the declining civilization. IOT with its range of technological support, starting from futuristic robots and drones to predictive modeling and ML based data analytics has transformed the face of the medical and healthcare industry.

The 10 benefits of choosing IOT for healthcare and medical industry are as follows:

1. Easy Access to Doctors

Source: juniordoctors.eu

In the era when the internet was not used widely in the healthcare and medical industry, access to doctors was not an easy option. When patients were in extreme need of doctors and their treatment as well as medication, either they had to travel and visit the doctor at his/her chamber or the doctor had to travel all the way in order to meet the patient.

As a result of this, treatment gets delayed to a great extent, causing potential harm to the health and wellbeing of the patient. However, with the incorporation of IOT in the arena of medicine and healthcare, the doctors can be quickly accessed. Just the way students are able to access TFTH for any kind of help regarding their academic needs; patients could access doctors whenever the need arose.

With the help of IOT, doctors are now capable of remotely monitoring the health conditions, progress and deterioration of the patients at one go.

In addition to that, the inclusion of wearable devices such as watches, bands, trackers and bracelets has eased the process of remotely treating the patients.

Information regarding the vitals of the patients such as heart rate, blood sugar, pulse and so on are directly sent to the doctors for analysis.

2. Empowered Patients

Source: corsifad.info

In the digital era, with the use of IOT and other technologically advanced systems, patients are benefited to a great extent. Apart from being benefited, they also feel greatly empowered as they feel a sense of autonomy in respect to their health conditions. Just the way TopAssignmentExperts are experts in the academic arena, the patients also feel that they have achieved expertise regarding their health.

The various trackers, watches, RFID tags and labels that are used in monitoring the patients closely from time to time, provide them with information about the different health parameters. With the help of these devices, the patients are aware of their health conditions and get to know whenever there is a problem in their bodily parameters.

This insight gives them a sense of confidence and autonomy over their health, thereby making them feel empowered. The elders, who are compelled to be stuck at their houses for their restrictions in movement and other limitations, get the necessary help in the comfort of their homes. This not only empowers them, but also eases the treatment procedure.

3. Improve Care Provision

Source: isqua.org

In the healthcare and medical field, the problems of staff shortages, scarcity of equipment, lack of tools are extremely common. In addition to that, the pandemic has come out as an eye opener regarding the degrading condition of the healthcare industry. Lack of qualified specialists, low numbers of adequately equipped rooms and so on has delayed the process of treatment and delay in discharge from hospitals.

Implementation and incorporation of Internet of Things can help sort out this problem to a great extent. IOT enabled devices that are attached to sensors can come into help regarding the availability of critical hospital equipment as well as SOS equipment which is inclusive of wheelchairs, nebulizers, oxygen cylinders, stretchers and so on.

With the knowledge of the availability of significant equipment at the fingertips, the process of care taking will become easier and smoother. With the help of the IOT devices, the procedure of providing assistance to patients in need can be significantly accelerated as well as simplified.

Connected technology achieved with the help of IOT has positively impacted the healthcare systems by monitoring patient admission, optimizing workflow, predicting the influx of patients in times of crisis and similar other supports.

4. Faster Diagnosis

Source: additudemag.com

Inclusion of the Internet of Things in the medical and healthcare sector has improved health services to a great extent especially by increasing the pace of treatment. However, with repeated diagnostic tests comes the responsibility of keeping the reports intact. IOT comes to help in this very situation. It helps in collecting and storing patient records, test records, treatment progress and other essential data so that it can be used for improved treatment of patients.

As a result of this, the diagnosis is faster as well as more accurate. Highly accurate diagnosis process has prevented the earlier problems of delayed treatment, as a result of which the health of patients was compromised.

Moreover, life expectancy has increased due faster and earlier diagnosis of critical illnesses. This technology has greatly advanced the arena of preventive medicine and driven it towards a lot of improvement.

5. Cost and Time Saving

Source: ryansauers.com

Time is precious for everyone, both doctors as well as patients. Earlier when remote tracking and telemedicine were not available, patients and doctors were compelled to travel to and fro for the purpose of attainment of treatment. This was extremely time consuming, along with that, it took a huge toll on the health and wellbeing of the patients.

In addition to that, there were instances that the health condition of the patient deteriorated due to the increased rate of travel and wastage of time. In such situations, both time and effort were wasted as well as treatment was delayed.

With the incorporation of IOT, the need for travelling has reduced to a great extent, both for medical practitioners as well as patients. This facility helps in saving costs as well prevents wastage of time and effort simultaneously. This is one of the greatest benefits of adopting IOT as it offers real time monitoring at no expense of wasting time, cost and effort.

6. Flawless Communication

Source: verywellhealth.com

In hospitals and healthcare centers, there are various instances where patients need to consult multiple doctors from multiple departments. Using the traditional methods of carrying physical reports to various departments as well as doctors becomes tedious work for the patients and their relatives.

Often patients forget to carry certain important medical documents that are required for the procedure of obtaining a particular treatment. As a result of such problems, the treatment procedure gets delayed as well a lot of time and efforts are wasted.

Incorporating IOT has greatly benefited patients in this arena, where various records and results are stored in the system of the healthcare center or hospital, with which easy and flawless communication is facilitated and followed.

As a result of this, the patients as well as the doctors remain stress free. Along with that, the treatment process is not hampered; time and effort are not wasted. IOT devices help by streamlining the communications leading to authentic transfer of data between physicians and other medical practitioners, thereby improving medical service.

7. Data Sorting

Source: medium.com

Data sorting is one of the most significant uses of the Internet of Things. In the healthcare and medical industry huge amounts of data is transferred to and from. As a result of this, there is an increased amount of confusion when data is retrieved for a certain purpose.

In the earlier pre-digital era, retrieving data was a highly complicated task as a lot of data remained jumbled up and complicated the process. Data sorting in the earlier times was also an extremely time-consuming process, which required a lot of labour and effort simultaneously.

With the advent of IOT, the procedure of transference and retrieval of data has become much easier and effortless. IOT can help in sorting out data on the basis of certain standard categories. As a result of this, appropriate data can be obtained from large chunks of data in times of critical need.

Physicians and medical practitioners can use the support offered by IOT to accelerate the treatment procedure and other associated processes to provide the best care facilities to the patients.

8. Drug and Equipment Management

Source: goodhousekeeping.com

Management of drugs and hospital equipment is a huge responsibility. It is necessary for the staff to keep a close eye on the various facilities of the hospitals and healthcare centers. Not keeping an observant eye on important tools and drugs can lead to the losing of those essential resources. However, it is impossible to deny the notion of human error.

Therefore, it can be easily understood that despite being observant regarding the hospital resources, there can be issues related to losing them or the resources getting stolen. The Internet of Things can be one of the best solutions to the problem. The tracking devices that are associated with IOT can prove to be beneficial in this case. With the help of the tracking devices, a close observation can be maintained.

As a result of this, the drugs and the medical equipment can be easily tracked as well as monitored efficiently. Using IOT sensors will also have a positive impact on the knowledge about the availability of resources.

With the help of sensors and tracking devices, it will be an effortless procedure to track various resources that are present in the different sections of the healthcare centers.

9. Low Human Errors

Source: npr.org

The healthcare and medical industry is always going through the problem of staff shortages and scarcity of qualified specialists. As a result of these shortages, the existing medical practitioners are put under a lot of stress and excessive workload. The cumulative effect of excessive stress, work related pressure, time crunch, immediacy of intervention and shortage of staff result in a tendency towards increased human errors.

Human errors on the part of doctors and other medical practitioners can have a severe impact on the health and wellbeing of the patients. Flaws on the part of physicians can even result in the death of patients as medical intervention entails a lot of risks and associated problems.

Implementation and incorporation of IOT in the medical and healthcare arena can reduce the load and stress of doctors and healthcare providers to a great extent by managing and tracking the vitals of the patients, their activities, reactions to different kinds of medications and so on.

IOT can therefore help with diagnosis, if and when used correctly and efficiently. This will also reduce the chances of human errors as physicians and healthcare providers will experience less work associated stress, therefore, offer better care to the patients.

10. Optimize Hospital Operation

Source: altexsoft.com

Integrating Internet of Things with various aspects of healthcare centers and hospitals can prove to be beneficial to a great extent. It can have a positive impact on the regular workflow of the hospitals and accelerate various processes.

Incorporation of IOT can also help in lowering the cost of various services offered by the hospitals thereby making them more accessible to the wide range of diverse needs of the patients coming from various social and economic strata of a country.

By offering better services at reduced costs, hospitals emerge to be more competitive in comparison to other hospitals and healthcare centers. Integration of IOT in the hospitals can be used to optimize the various operations with the help of efficient monitoring.

Some of the operations that can be optimized are air quality, air temperature and so on. Just the way EduWorldUSA optimizes the academic career of students, Internet of Things optimizes the various aspects of the hospitals and helps them create a brand in the market. The various devices and technologies incorporated in IOT help to monitor and regulate the environment of the hospitals.

For instance, air quality monitors can check as well as regulate the moisture level, which can have a significant impact on patients with respiratory distress.