The integration of cutting-edge technologies has become synonymous with progress and success since the IoMT market is anticipated to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.4% from 2023 to 2030. In today’s article, we will discuss the role of IoMT in the healthcare industry and share examples that display the transformative impact of IoMT on healthcare.
The Essence and Types of IoMT
The IoMT relies on networking technologies, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and radio transmission, creating a seamless communication network between various medical devices. This intricate system is not a monolith but encompasses diverse segments and device types that cater to different healthcare scenarios.
Examples of IoMT:
For in-home use, IoMT enables virtual remote care, telehealth appointments, and remote patient monitoring. Personal Emergency Response Systems (PERS) play a key role in emergencies by promptly alerting medical call centers. Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) offers continuous surveillance of physiological parameters, a valuable asset in managing chronic illnesses.
IoMT contributes to Emergency Response Intelligence in community settings, enhancing response times and patient outcomes during critical situations. Point-of-care (POC) Diagnostic Devices redefine diagnostic testing by extending it beyond traditional laboratory settings. The IoMT ensures the integrity of medical goods during transportation, a vital aspect of the supply chain.
IoMT helps efficiently utilize hospital resources. Patient Flow Management Intelligence optimizes workflow in healthcare facilities, contributing to streamlined and patient-focused care delivery. Inventory Management Technology and Environment and Energy Monitoring Intelligence work in tandem to ensure the availability of supplies and sustainable healthcare practices.
The IoMT contributes to patients’ well-being, emergency response, diagnostics, logistics, and the efficient functioning of healthcare institutions.
Benefits of IoMT for Healthcare
The integration of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) into healthcare systems marks a revolutionary shift, bringing many advantages that significantly impact patient care and overall healthcare management.
Data-Driven Decisions
A primary benefit of IoMT is its ability to facilitate real-time patient monitoring and medication reminders. This empowers healthcare professionals to make informed decisions based on up-to-the-minute health data, enhancing the precision of medical interventions.
A Systematic Review and IoMT-Based Big Data Framework introduces cov-AID, an IoMT-based system, and its advantages for COVID detection and prevention. This framework facilitated data-driven decisions in healthcare by offering remote solutions for real-time patient monitoring, treatment, and outbreak detection. With cost-effective strategies and systematic storage for big data analysis, cov-AID underscores IoMT’s role in enabling precise and informed decision-making by healthcare professionals. The system’s emphasis on remote online consultations further reinforces IoMT’s significance in shaping precision in healthcare.
Efficient Processes
Streamlining healthcare operations is a key contribution of IoMT. By leveraging interconnected devices and systems, IoMT enhances the efficiency of healthcare processes. This improves security measures and optimizes administrative tasks, allowing healthcare providers to focus more on patient care.
One study demonstrates the significant impact of IoMT on streamlining healthcare processes, validating its usefulness for efficient operations. The study showcases that medical personnel accurately collected vital signs data, leading to a fast response time for system alerts.
The study highlights the success rate in transmitting data from devices to the cloud system and the ability of IoMTs to enhance the efficiency of healthcare processes, allowing for seamless data transmission and rapid response mechanisms. The study provides practical evidence that IoMT contributes to streamlining processes within the medical industry.
Global Connectivity
The global reach of IoMT is a game-changer in providing healthcare assistance. Smart medical devices can collect vital health data and transmit it worldwide. This paves the way for remote consultations, enabling healthcare professionals to offer personalized medical advice irrespective of geographical distances.
A review of enabling technologies for the IoMT ecosystem displays the impact of IoMT on global connectivity in healthcare. By leveraging smart medical devices integrated into a comprehensive network, systems showcase the ability to collect crucial health data from diverse sources and seamlessly transmit it on a global scale.
The connectivity facilitates real-time remote consultations and improves the accessibility of data in healthcare accessibility. The IoMT framework has no geographical barriers and allows healthcare professionals to extend personalized medical advice and interventions irrespective of the physical location of patients.
Lower Costs
IoMT brings about a significant reduction in healthcare costs by minimizing hospital stays and readmissions. Real-time health monitoring, facilitated by smart devices, allows for proactive intervention and timely adjustments to treatment plans. This benefits patients and contributes to more sustainable and cost-effective healthcare systems.
The study of the impact of using the IoMT on e-healthcare performance illustrates the usefulness of IoMT for lower costs through integrating smart contracts using blockchain technology in e-healthcare. By leveraging the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), particularly through real-time health monitoring facilitated by smart devices, the healthcare system can achieve proactive intervention and timely adjustments to treatment plans.
This results in minimizing hospital stays and readmissions, directly reducing healthcare costs. IoMT improves health outcomes and benefits healthcare by reducing reliance on costly hospital stays and readmissions.
Research and Population Health Management
IoMT generates vast datasets that are invaluable for various healthcare aspects. From disease pattern analysis to evaluating treatment efficacy and understanding public health trends, the data produced by IoMT becomes a cornerstone for evidence-based healthcare policies. This, in turn, contributes to advancements in research and enhances population health management.
A study on the role of the IoMT in healthcare emphasizes its role as a practical and strategic remedy for healthcare burdens, offering insights into how it transforms existing healthcare IT infrastructure. Additionally, the study delves into the rapid evolution of healthcare through IoMT, showcasing its effectiveness in supporting elderly care, monitoring chronic diseases, managing patients remotely, and enhancing public health.
The IoMT simplifies research and population management by providing valuable insights for practitioners, researchers, educators, students, and stakeholders invested in the future of healthcare.
The IoMT empowers healthcare professionals with real-time data, engages patients proactively, and sets the stage for a healthcare landscape that is efficient, cost-effective, and patient-centric. Now, let’s delve into specific IoMT use cases that vividly illustrate its impactful contributions to various aspects of healthcare.
Boosting the Connectivity of IoMT With FHIR for Internet of Medical Things in Healthcare
Turbota, a personal healthcare app created by Edenlab, enhances patient-centric healthcare by providing a comprehensive Health Wallet for storing and managing medical data. Turbota aimed to create a patient-friendly application that addresses the limitations of the Ukrainian e-health ecosystem.
The task involved developing a perfect app for patients to access their complete medical history and manage it autonomously via any device.
The challenges included:
- Limited access to off-line medical service agreements.
- The necessity for in-person visits to sign agreements.
- The absence of patient-driven data management.
Solutions included:
- User authentication through third-party services.
- Encryption of personal user data.
- The implementation of federated APIs for seamless data integration.
The project also targeted e-prescriptions, e-referrals, and signing agreements with primary healthcare doctors. Our team addressed the challenge of limitations in the e-Health provider directory’s filtering capabilities by creating its own medical providers’ directory and implementing an ETL process to extract data from e-Health to Turbota’s backend.
Finally, the process involved downloading medical history from local sources and sharing medical data with third-party applications. Challenges included combining data from different sources and displaying it uniformly within the application. Turbota used the Kodjin FHIR Server to ensure seamless connectivity and interoperability of the medical data.
Conclusion
You can boost the transformative power of the Internet of Medical Things in healthcare by coupling it with FHIR-first solutions. By seamlessly integrating diverse medical devices and leveraging FHIR’s interoperability, not just batch processing, IoMT becomes a powerful tool for advancements in patient care and healthcare management.
FHIR enables interoperability, which is crucial for data-driven decisions, streamlining processes, and fostering the global connectivity of IoMT. At Edenlab, we craft solutions that harmonize IoMT with FHIR, offering a transformative experience. Together, we can create healthcare systems that enhance outcomes and set a new standard for accessibility and interaction in healthcare.
