IoT Revolutionizing Healthcare Creating Job Opportunities

Ubuntupit and Econsultancy Viewed 251 Times Viewed by 195 People

The lack of skilled IT workers is hurting the deployment of emerging technology, according to a new survey from Gartner. In areas from cloud to cybersecurity, this crisis is expected to last for years to come.

That sort of disruption is evident in the healthcare sector, where pen and paper has been the primary means of recording patient information for decades and don’t we all know the frustrations of making sense of those doctor’s notes! But now, healthcare technology is changing it all in major ways.

A Gartner survey of 511 U.S.-based enterprise IT managers revealed that IoT adoption is becoming mainstream. Eleven percent of those surveyed worked in healthcare enterprises, and 86% of those respondents reported having an IoT architecture in place for most lines of business.

And according to Meticulous Research IOT in Healthcare market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29.9% to reach $322.2 billion by 2025.

Considering the growth of IOT adoption in this sector and with budgeting on par with other industries, job opportunities are bound to increase for IT professionals with requisite qualifications and expertise.

How IOT is Revolutionizing the Healthcare Industry

The IOT is slowly starting to weave into healthcare on both the doctor and patient fronts. Ultrasounds, thermometers, glucose monitors, electrocardiograms, and more are all starting to become connected and letting patients track their health. This is crucial for those situations that require follow-up appointments with doctors.

Arguably the greatest technological advancement in the last several decades has been the development of electronic health records (EHRs), which are just reaching full penetration in US hospitals. EHRs are moving to become platforms integrated with powerful clinical decision support tools.

Programming languages like Java, C, Python, and SQL are commonly used in electronic health records and health databases.

Portal technology is another area that lets patients manage their appointments, access reports, download forms etc. Cloud technology is empowering health data sharing and driving innovation.

Multiple hospitals have started to utilize smart beds, which can sense the presence of a patient and automatically adjust itself to the correct angle and pressure to provide support without the need for a nurse to intervene.

IOT can also help transform patient care at home. Smart medication dispensers at home can alert doctors if patients do not take medications in appropriate doses and help doctors to take suitable action.

Applications and the type of work and you can expect

Few applications of IoT in the healthcare may give you an idea about the forthcoming revolution and job opportunities.

1. Remote Patient Monitoring

Wearable devices with embedded sensors can monitor patient condition whole day long and can notify the doctor. Regular monitoring and timely action will help prevent unnecessary and costly trips to the doctor’s office or even hospitalization.

2. Hand Hygiene Monitoring

In the current situation with COVID-19 hand hygiene has gained the highest importance in our lives. For medical staff the importance always existed. Study says that poor hand hygiene practice can spread various disease in a health institution.

The idea is to use hand-sanitizer dispensers with sensors to monitor the exact time of when that was used. The IoT application uses foot traffic sensors and hand sanitizer dispensers to collect data and sends it to Microsoft Azure, a cloud-based computing service.  It makes a beep sound if medical stuff comes close to patients without handwashing.

3. Glucose Monitoring

Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires a lot of care by patient and doctor. IoT applications with wearable or embedded body sensors that continuously monitor and send data of sugar level in blood can minimize the risk of death by diabetes. HbA1c levels too can be monitored. One of the disadvantages of this type of application is it may not give you 100% accurate results.

4. Cancer Detection

Breast cancer is the second dangerous condition for women after lung cancer. The idea behind detecting breast cancer is the use of “ITbra,” which is more effective than regular cancer detection procedures. This garment can detect temperature changes with seven embedded sensors on breast tissue. Analyzing abnormal pattern it uses a machine-learning algorithm to predict early-stage cancer.

5. Heart Rate Monitoring

The number of heart patients is increasing day by day in the whole world. IoT applications can detect heartbeat and pulse, which can reduce the risk factor. A sensor connected device sends real-time pulse rate to the cloud, and doctors can check that data anywhere from the world. This application carries real healthcare value.

6. Blood Coagulation Testing

Blood clot level plays an essential role in the human body. For the treatment of various diseases like diabetes, stroke, etc. it is necessary to know the blood clot level. IoT devices can monitor the blood coagulation system from time to time, which helps to keep the patient’s activity under the therapeutic range to lower the risk factor.

This Bluetooth enabled technology helps the patient to monitor how quickly their blood clots and lowers the risk of brain stroke and the bleeding problems of diabetes patients.

6. Robotic Surgery

The health care sector is becoming more complex day by day, and with time, researchers are connecting devices via the internet. To perform the surgical operation, more precisely, doctors are using IoT enabled robotic devices.

It enables doctors to perform the operation with more control and precision. It makes it possible to perform the operation from the distant place, which can save many lives both in the hospital and war zone. Security risk can be high as devices are connected to the internet.

7. Connected Inhaler

Asthma is a disease that is not curable, but it is controllable by using the inhaler. A sensor connected inhaler can alert the patient from a triggering factor (air pollen, temperature) to prevent an asthma attack. This application will make it possible to fight with respiratory illness for a long time.

8. Interoperability

Different healthcare organizations started collecting a massive amount of data produced by IoT devices. Collecting that data, IBM Watson and Teva began a new IoT project that will be responsible for creating new methods of treatment and prediction of chronic disease. Healthcare organizations use artificial intelligence and natural language processing to organize this data.

9. Connected Contact Lenses

The eye is an extraordinary human organ. With the combination of sensor and contact lens, it is possible to detect symptoms of various eye diseases. Researchers are working to provide a solution of presbyopia (the disease caused by loss of elasticity of eye lens) via sensor-based contact lens.

10. Smart Watches for Depression

Recently tech-giant Apple started working on their smartwatch to detect depression levels. This device can track and suggest what to do in case of depression. This is an innovative example of artificial intelligence or machine learning in healthcare, which helps to predict depression level of the users.

11. Parkinson Patient Monitoring

Parkinson’s patients need to be observed at every moment. Research results like “Movement disorder API” can detect abnormal footstep, instability of stride length in patients to draw a graph pattern. The doctor analyzes and checks data from the cloud and advises family members on taking appropriate action.

12. Ingestible Sensors

According to a study of WHO 50%, people don’t take medication as indicated by the doctor. This practice leads to the severe conditions of the patient. Ingestible sensors with magnesium and copper coating can trigger a signal and send a message to family member, if medication is not taken at the exact time.

13. GPS Smart Sole

Handling an Alzheimer’s patient is not an easy task. They forget so many daily necessary tasks and often get lost. Smart insole embedded with GPS has the advantage to fit easily into any adult shoes. It uses both satellite and cellular technology for GPS tracking. It will send notification if patient is wandering.

There are several other areas where IoT is being used such as hospital operations management, smart hearing Aids, robotic surgery, medical waste management, efficient drug management, body scanning, nurse assistant robot, and other.

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