Internet of Medical Things? (IoMT) A New Way Of Healthcare

The Internet of Medical Things is an amalgamation of technologies sometimes AI-powered used in healthcare that is connected to each other checking each aspect of the body of the patient and showing each condition and sending notifications of sudden changes. It contains a network layer, hardware capable of sending information and a server where every data is stored and processed.

It can reduce the crowd in the healthcare facility which for patients means limiting the number of visits to the hospitals. In simpler terms, it might increase the physical distance from the patient to the healthcare person but it closes the distance between the information and the healthcare person. As the data claims by the end of 2022 IoT market is expected to cross the 72.02 Billion dollar mark a huge part of which will be IoMT. Let’s elaborate more on how the internet of medical things can transform the world.

Internet Of Medical Things Examples

The Internet of things can be categorized by where they are kept for example the first wearable category tracks the real-time data and sends it consists smart devices, such as wearables and medical/vital monitors, etc. The second category is the in-home devices. These stay in-home or apartments or community centres in a hospital setting and connect with the wearable takes the account of the patient’s location and tracks health condition. Let’s go more in-depth into it.

The wearable segment

The wearable segment for the Internet of medical things is also known as the on-body segment. It’s not only the IoT powered fitness band medical wearables for doctors that come under it as well. Most of the consumer healthcare IoT as we said before like fitness bands are not regulated by any healthcare authorities but still, they can be utilised for their data by getting the data tested by some medical experts.

Now for the clinical-grade wearables, we have devices that are regulated devices and supporting platforms that are generally certified/approved for use by one or more regulatory or health authorities, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. These kinds of devices are targeted at people with chronic long-term health diseases. For example, we have a (1) smart belt from Active Protective that detects falls and deploys hip protection for elderly wearers. (2) Halo Neuroscience’s Halo Sport headset, stimulates the brain so the muscles can work better for them. (3) ometrix’s Quell is a wearable neuromodulation device that taps into sensory nerves to provide relief from chronic pain.

In-Home Segment

The in-home segment includes personal emergency response systems (PERS), remote patient monitoring (RPM) which is a large appliance tracking health of subjects from remote places and telehealth virtual visits from kiosks.

A PERS collects the information from the wearable devices and sometimes a live medical call centre service stays to back it up for better performance and accuracy. It comes as a blessing for the elderly who have so much limited mobility and are mostly homebound. It will increase their self-reliance and lighten the workload for the people in their homes. The package allows users to quickly communicate and receive emergency medical care. 

This PERS device is a cluster of different kinds of devices, monitoring systems sensors and actuators for monitoring and notifying if any chronic disease is in progress or not. It works like magic and cuts down the chances of patients getting admitted again for not being able to take care of themselves for lack of information about their health. It also lets doctors discharge patients faster and on the plus side, it can help to recover patients. Also to prevent re-hospitalization it can be used to send notifications to the home of the patients.

The telehealth virtual visits include virtual consultations that help patients manage their conditions and obtain prescriptions or recommended care plans. Examples include video consultations and evaluation of symptoms or lesions through video observation and digital tests.

Community Segment

There are five components of this segment:

Ambulance services allow passenger vehicles to track health parameters during transit.

Emergency response intelligence is designed to assist first responders, paramedics and hospital emergency department care providers.

Kiosks are physical structures, often with computer touchscreen displays that look like ATMs or vending machines, that can distribute products or make people connect to healthcare experts the people in need. In the medical camps, point-of-care devices are used

Per unit of this kind of kiosk health care goods contain pharmaceuticals, medical and surgical supplies, medical devices and equipment and other products needed by care providers.

Modern IoMT includes pharmaceuticals gadgets for measuring shipments that are capable of measuring temperature, if the patient has gone through shock, humidity, and tilt. Suppose if a patient needs something immediately it will use RFID chips barcodes and drones to do everything securely.

In-Clinic Segment

In the in-clinic segment, IoMT includes that are used by administrative bodies in clinical facilities. The appliances are the same in functionality but they are used differently. Here the caregiver does not physically use it.

Here the healthcare professional locates in which remote location they are in and then helps the subject person who is using it.

In-Hospital Segment 

This segment of IoMT devices divides suddenly from here. It goes either into IoMT devices for larger group solutions or IoMT devices for managemental areas.

The managemental area devices

This management monitors and tracks high-value capital equipment and mobile assets, such as infusion pumps and wheelchairs, throughout the facility. 

Personnel management measures staff efficiency and productivity. 

It improvises patient flow management in the facility which saves bottleneck situations and puts lesser loads on the healthcare workers. For example, it can check the arrival time, operating time and how much time it will take to get them discharged. From now the device calculates when they will send the notification to the next patent about when to come.

The inventory area IoMT

Inventory management makes ordering and storing hospital supplies, consumables and pharmaceuticals and medical devices super easy. It also makes the system more efficient and eliminates mistakes.

The patients and medicines need the proper environment to be kept in a proper environment. The inventor management system controls the environment smartly much required for those areas automatically.

An example of this can be included in Zoll’s wearable defibrillator. which continuously monitors patients at risk of ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation and sends notifications if something is out of normal.