What good is technology if it doesn’t help people? While all companies must keep an eye on the bottom line, some companies keep a focus on how technology is helping people improve quality of life. One area of technology that is receiving growing attention is healthcare, and Vodafone has planted its flag as one of the pre-eminent M2M mobile technology providers for the healthcare space.
With over 20 million global connections in 37 countries and 500 partner networks, Vodafone is a leader in providing connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT). At the recent Cloud Expo, Vodafone’s President of M2M Americas Andrew Morawski spent some time to talk with IoT Evolution about healthcare, IoT and cloud.
Echoing the company’s healthcare initiative Morawski told us, “We’ve had a significant amount of success in the healthcare vertical because it’s where we’ve seen the most impact on people’s lives.” He explained that when it comes to the IoT and M2M development many people are developing apps like pet trackers, smoke detectors and smart thermostats—which may make life easier—but, they do not truly make a difference in people’s lives.
As Morawski put it, “This is where the rubber has met the road for us.”
For instance, Boston Scientific is leveraging a solution called Latitude. It provides for a cardio implant device that monitors and manages cardio activity that sends collected data to a bedside device that is easily accessible for medical teams to access. And, it’s supported by Vodafone.
The number of touch points today coming from wearables and implanted devices are transforming the industry and allowing firms to do things differently than before—with cloud bringing greater simplicity to the process.
Another use case comes in the form of Lively, a provider of smart home and personal emergency response technology. Lively developed an in-home hub, which places sensors around an elderly person’s home to track day-to-day behavior and via broadband connection can easily be set up. Vodafone’s M2M SIM utilizes a secure virtual private network to gather and share the collected data. The device is plug-and-play, and offers relatives and loved ones peace of mind by placing sensors on the refrigerator, pill box and doors—for example—to ensure medication is taken properly and the subject displays healthy behavior.
The beauty of leveraging Vodafone connectivity support is that global integration is with a single API, making it quite user friendly to deploy and manage.
It is clear its focus on healthcare is not just a phase, but a priority. Morawski proclaimed, “We’ve been the global leader in M2M and are continuing to maintain that position by focusing on these real life applicable use cases.”
Only time will tell what innovation comes next, but it seems to be a safe bet that when it comes to innovation in M2M and the healthcare space Vodafone will be the company connecting it.
Edited by
Ken Briodagh
