Healthcare: Key IoT Use Cases in 2023

The fast-paced evolution of technology has given the world of healthcare countless advanced tools, including the Internet of Things (IoT). However, given the immense potential of IoT in healthcare, this technology has garnered quite a lot of interest from the sector.

Here are some potential use cases of IoT in healthcare that may become more prevalent:

· Remote patient monitoring

· Personalized medicine

· Asset tracking and management

· Telemedicine

· Predictive maintenance

· Ambient assisted living

· Hospital efficiency

Overall, IoT has the potential to transform healthcare in many ways, improving patient outcomes, reducing costs, and increasing access to care. However, it is essential to address privacy and security concerns to protect patient data.

If you are wondering why that is, here are some IoT use cases in healthcare to help you understand:

1. Remote patient monitoring: One of the biggest and most vital use cases of the Internet of Things in healthcare is remote patient monitoring. What does that mean? IoT-driven medical devices are intended to collect patient data, such as body temperature, blood pressure, and heart rate, on a daily or periodic basis without necessitating patients’ physical presence in the facility. The hospital’s systems can then analyze the data to send alerts, offer recommendations about treatment plans, etc.
2. Treatment management: Among the leading causes of treatment failure is non-adherence to treatment plans, i.e., failure to take medications on time and such. So, how can the Internet of Things help with this? Well, for starters, IoT-enabled devices can send alerts to patients when it is time to take their medication. Such devices can also be used to gather data to monitor the overall adherence to the plan, determine issues, if at all, etc.
3. Medical assets monitoring: One more reason why more and more hospitals are keen to integrate IoT in their operations is that this technology can also help them track and monitor assets. So, when the staff does not have to expend time finding medical carts, determining availability of machines, seeing how many beds are available, etc., they can utilize their time better, being more productive. Simply put, with assets being monitored automatically, doctors and other staff are able to dedicate more time to delivering high-quality patient care.
4. Automation of healthcare: Yet another crucial way the Internet of Things (IoT) can be put to work for the healthcare sector is automation. You see, IoT-driven devices and software can be used to automate various repetitive and mundane tasks across the healthcare facility’s operations. Interestingly, this has another tangential benefit: data analysis. The data collected through such automation can be analyzed to gain valuable insights into operations, patients’ health status, etc. And let us not forget that automated data collection also dramatically reduces the scope of error.

The Internet of Things has, without a doubt, garnered significant attention in the market over the past few years. Now, while this technology making its way into the world of healthcare is not surprising at all, the fact remains that the sector is only starting to see the impact this technology stands to have. Yet, experts are confident that the prevalence of the Internet of Things in the world of healthcare will grow multifold over the foreseeable future. This is, of course, owing to the many benefits that the Internet of Things (IoT) in the healthcare industry stands to offer for hospitals and other healthcare facilities. So, healthcare providers that intend to keep pace with the sector and future-proof their operations would do well to embrace such solutions. What are you waiting for, then? Go ahead and get started on integrating IoT in your operations ASAP!