- Most countries, rich or poor, are groaning
under the weight of rising healthcare costs.
In rich countries, these costs account for 12% of GDP,
with US as an extreme outlier at 18%.
Not surprisingly hospitals as well as individuals
are becoming enthusiastic adopters of the IoT technology.
It helps improve quality of care
without much, if any, increase in costs.
Let's look at some key examples.
Smart phone like devices can now take
photos of wounds and transmit them
to the patient's medical file.
These images help nurses assess the severity of a wound
and track how it's healing over time.
Smart pacemakers now come with the ability
to communicate with external monitors.
When a patient with such a pacemaker
implanted in his or her heart visits the doctor,
the doctor can download information
about the behavior of the heart as well as
whether or not the device has sufficient battery power.
A growing number of IV machines
are embedded with sensors that can be programmed
to deliver the right amount of medication at the right time.
In the case of pain medication
the patient could also be given a wristband
which can communicate wirelessly with the IV machine.
When the patient needs to reduce the pain
he or she can use the wristband
to trigger the machine to deliver medication.
The system is designed to prevent overdosing.
Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City
has installed sensors in hospital beds
that let the staff know exactly when
a bed has become free, is ready for reuse, and its location.
This simple move has reduced wait times
by several hours for half
of the hospitals emergency patients.
Imaging machines such as for taking x-rays,
CT scans, and MRI images
routinely come embedded with sensors.
These play several roles.
They monitor the performance of the machine
in terms of how well it did the task
it was designed to do.
They issue alerts if during the machines use
certain thresholds get exceeded.
And they trigger calls for preventive maintenance
so that unwarranted downtime is reduced or eliminated.
As sensors become more powerful and cheaper
they're bound to become even more pervasive
throughout the healthcare system.