IoT, the term in itself is simple to spell and so is the process to use or operate. All it needs is a sensor and internet. Monitor and control everything at home even when not home.
Internet of Things or simply IoT has found significance on almost every possible field of work. From the automobile industry in monitoring the vehicles’ performances and monitoring the environment (pollution, change in temperature, humidity etc.) to controlling heavy machinery in industries, in maintenance and repair and farming there is not a line of work that can decline Internet of Things’ significance. And as a recent addition, IoT has also found its significance in pet care, where pet owners can monitor their pets and also feed them on time as per their diet even from a different location.
And with several applications in several fields it is quite obvious that people would only welcome the applications of IoT in healthcare. From monitoring a patient’s blood levels and diet to providing complete reports everyday; the applications of IoT in healthcare are countless and here we have listed a few of the most significant ones.
When was the last time you had to go to a hospital and face the long waiting lines before you could even make an appointment? IoT in healthcare can effectively manage and schedule appointments and since all data is fed to a cloud, patients can also be rescheduled to consult another medical practitioner on break or at leisure. Say you walk into a laboratory and have to wait for more than an hour to fix an appointment with the machine. Whereas there is another laboratory at the other end of the hospital free and less utilized. Here is where IoT comes to play. Monitoring all activities; IoT devices can schedule appointments to a laboratory that is less crowded and utilized.
Maintenance and Repair:
As seen above operational activities of almost all the equipment’s are monitored and control with IoT devices remotely from anywhere. And all operational data is stored at cloud with which, IoT can summon or request technicians for repair, refill and other maintenance works periodically. Used to walking to a lab and end up with an equipment that needs a refill of its supplies? With Internet of things, worry no more.
And maintaining or repairing doesn’t necessarily require the technicians to be present in person. Any software related maintenance can be remotely repaired and for repairs that had to be done in person, the technicians can be aware of the issue well before without having to diagnose the device manually in person.
Not only at medical institutions, the significance of IoT in healthcare can also be implied for monitor bed ridden patients who need intense care and require regular visits from a healthcare professional. From heart rate monitoring to pressure levels IoT devices can be utilized to monitor every necessary health issue and either transmits them to the caretaker or saves it at the cloud.
Accessing all data from the cloud or with the data received from the IoT device, health care professionals or the concerned caretakers at all times even from remote locations.
IoT Pill Bottles:
Consulting medical practitioners and having purchased all the prescribed medicines will not assist in getting cured without actually using them. And with applications of IoT in healthcare limited to only analysing and detecting illness there had be constant manual monitoring in making patients taking prescribed medicines on time. But with IoT, there is always a solution. IoT in pill bottles.
The IoT device in pill bottles detects the decrease in level or weight of bottle when the patient consumes the prescription and notifies them with chimes and lightings and also reminds them through text messages and email when they do not. The idea has already been put in use by few IoT start-ups like AdhereTech, Vitality GlowCap and RXAnte and they have quite a number of clients already. Integrated with the IoT devices are software that request patients the reasons for skipping their prescription every time they do.
And as the best application of Io