People across the world have experienced a dislocation of medical and hospital care during the first year of the pandemic. But, at the same time, millions experienced how technology can change health care practices and the patient care experience. Few observers believe health care will return to the pre-pandemic norm because widespread innovative uses of technology were introduced or expanded during the crisis.
Today, there are reportedly more than half a million medical technologies. Many of them are medical devices, instrumentation, and hospital equipment, but other technologies support systems of telemedicine, patient and staff tracking, and sensing and reporting remote data—to cite but a few examples. The latter are internet-connected devices.
The term for these systems of physical things in the medical field, connected by the internet, and therefore operating wirelessly to perform myriad functions, is the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). A specific application of the widespread IoT, these systems are improving efficiencies, lowering health care costs, and yielding better outcomes for patients.
These advantages, many introduced or greatly improved during the pandemic, will not be given up. Instead, as computing power and wireless technologies like smart badges, asset tags, sensors, portals, and gateways improve, organizations across the spectrum of health care will keep leveraging their capabilities.
If the IoMT, as a system of devices and software applications, has rapidly become integrated with health systems and services, it is probably thanks to a new generation of sensor-based tools. Bracelets for patients and fixed devices for monitoring hospital patients, patient rooms, and other parts of medical facilities are largely concerned with new ways of collecting, analyzing, storing and transmitting patient information. It is this that sets the IoMT apart from applications of IoT in other industries.
This new generation of technology facilitated by the internet is driving better workflow management not only in patient care in and out of hospitals, but in the pharmaceutical industry, the health insurance industry, and others.
According to AllTheResearch, the growth of the world IoMT market will skyrocket in the next few years. That business was valued in 2018 at about $45 billion and is expected to grow more than 500 percent by 2026.
One element that may drive growth is the increasing integration of artificial intelligence into IoMT. AI technologies keep improving the analysis of data, including hospital-patient movements, staff work patterns, and management of assets to uncover patterns and insights. With data continuously collected from patients, locations, and staff, AI can use algorithms to help make better business and clinical decisions in the hospital and, above all, to continue to improve the experience of patients.
Much of the technology for remote patient monitoring is used in hospitals and other inpatient facilities. In such facilities, the IoMT has a host of distinctive, specialized applications. Many improve patient monitoring, increase staff effectiveness and even safety, make better use of patients rooms, and keep track of major mobile equipment around the hospital.
A good illustration of the sheer diversity of IoMT is its application in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries.
Asset tags and related tracking technology and software have the potential to transform the logistics of transporting health care goods: pharmaceuticals, supplies of all kinds, medical devices, and equipment--to take just a few examples. IoMT sensors will be able to safeguard certain shipments where temperature, vibration, and humidity need to be measured and controlled.
Insurance companies now are experimenting with tracking relevant behavior and health status of insured individuals and groups. The results when analyzed are being found to make possible better pricing of diverse types of insurance, but also more rapid settlement of claims. There are gains in collecting, appropriately aggregating and transmitting data in the form of the many, many reports to multiple parties now required for insurance compliance. The implications for cost savings in the handling of records are huge.
Almost all health care organizations globally are now using Internet of Things technologies, at least in some applications. That has increased from about two-thirds in 2019. But if most hospitals and other health care organizations have begun to seek the benefits of IoMT in some areas, the full paradigm shift to digital transformation is just beginning.
As a leader in innovative technology and applications of IoT, installing systems employing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, Kontakt.io is advancing wireless tracking, monitoring, data transmission, and data analysis in many leading industries, including health care. Kontakt.io beacons and tags and Kontakt.io gateways, for example, have constantly proliferating applications in hospitals and other settings.
At Kontakt.io our mission for health care is to make smart hospital solutions available to all health systems - big or small.
For information specifically on IoMT see:
- Our on-demand webinar covering Kontakt.io medical device management
- Our on-demand webinar covering Kontakt.io patient workflows
How smart hospital solutions are delivering better clinical outcomes, greater efficiencies, and higher patient satisfaction through digital transformation using technologies like Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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