IoT Enables Improved Medical Care

I’ve said, and industry folks smarter than me agree, that good “smart” medicine could be the gateway to a more trusted IoT among consumers.

Many IoT companies are helping that cause along by educating healthcare professionals about the benefits of connected, smart devices and software and how implementation can improve the standard of care.

One such company is global software development firm Artezio, which has developed a telemedicine solution designed for continuous monitoring of selected patient parameters, and at the same time, the state of a large number of patients outside of medical facilities. The goal, Artezio states, is to speed the transmission of information during critical care periods so that analysts can make better decisions about the status of each patient’s medical care.

This service support system is built use combine the resources of several components, including: Telemedicine sensors for each patient, a smartphone for each patient, a collector for the data streams, a storage system, an intelligent system for data analysts, and a messaging generator.

It works pretty simply, which is critical to successful implementation. Each patient who subscribes gets a set of the required wearable sensors, including a heart rate monitor, blood oxygen monitor, and blood pressure monitor. These sensors will be chosen based upon diagnosis, of course. The patient must also install the smartphone app that provides transfer of information from the sensors to the secure location from which data flows to the analysts.

The intelligent machine system produces a real-time data stream analysis and assesses the risk of changing conditions for patients. If the level of risk defined for each patient exceeds the parameters, the system generates messages for the relevant medical staff, ambulances, and caregiver or family members.

The system architecture is designed to allow users to start deployments with limited computing power and low expenditures, and can be scaled later as need increases. Initial phases of deployment can be for up to 100,000 patients.

Solutions like this one, built for systematic improvement of care, are critical to the success of the IoT. I’ll be watching to see how many of the other developers out there get the message.