Healthcare is digitalising to solve healthcare challenges, detect, and where possible prevent, serious health issues and deliver efficiencies. The IoT has a role to play in this, connecting devices and applications to give clinicians data to make informed, timely decisions. This article looks at what healthcare needs to go digital, why digitalising is a must-do, and what the IoT and innovation can deliver for the sector.
What healthcare needs to connect digital applications
Healthcare providers need help to digitalise and gain maximum advantage from innovations that can support patients and the industry. They look to their digital solutions providers to guide them through the process, including how to connect the applications that capture patient, and other, data.
As a designer, you should involve a connectivity provider that understands your, and your customer’s challenges and has connected applications at-scale, as early as possible. Ask them questions about uptime, resilience and security. These are critical in healthcare; here’s why:
Uptime and resilience
Many connected care applications, such as those that track chronic conditions, rely on real-time data transfer with minimal risk of downtime. Resilience can be an issue if a connectivity provider relies soley on one mobile network provider so look to a partner instead with a dedicated IoT service offering with multi-network resilience and a track record of providing high performance and reliability – key for supporting the demands of connected care.
For multi-national and complex deployments, consider global eSIM with remote SIM provisioning (RSP) and permanent roaming compliance. With RSP you can assign, or switch, network profile when devices are in place. Updating SIMs remotely this way makes manufacturing and distribution simpler too because products can have a single stock keeping unit (SKU) regardless of where they are going.
Security
In Wireless Logic research with Kaleido Intelligence 90% of healthcare respondents with or without cellular IoT reported pain points around cybersecurity threats and compliance challenges. Healthcare is crying out for robust IoT security – nearly four out of ten (39%) of those with cellular IoT expect connectivity providers to offer network threat detection and mitigation services.
You must devote time to the security of your device, application and connectivity and protect your revenue, reputation, and those of your customers, with comprehensive IoT security measures that defend against, detect and react to threats.
Why healthcare must go digital
I detected change in the air at Care Show this year. Conversations about digital transformation are nothing new, of course, but there was more purpose this year. Healthcare providers and institutions seemed more aware that they must go digital, and they have a range of priorities in doing so.
Large providers like the NHS are getting to grips with how to use data. They have lots of it, but it is spread around many systems. Top of their list, therefore, is getting joined-up because it is better for patients and providers if problems can be predicted and detected—and interventions staged—before serious health issues occur.
Digital applications can help predict and detect these issues. They can also help with efficiency – another healthcare priority – by plugging resourcing gaps with automation and time-saving solutions.
What the IoT can do for healthcare
The IoT can enable and support remote patient monitoring, independent living and clinical trials. It can help hospitals free up capacity by equipping clinicians to monitor and support patients at home. It can save time and improve efficiency by facilitating tests, such as those for viral infection, at the bedside where results can be scanned to auto-populate medical records and reduce the need for manual data entry.
Cellular IoT is convenient for healthcare because it connects products and solutions without needing to run wires or install additional on-site network infrastructure. It also offers flexibility through a range of connectivity types suited to particular requirements, such as data throughput and power source.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a hot trend of course and was discussed at all of Care Show, HETT and Medica this year. It, like joining up data and predicting and detecting health issues, will continue as a digital focus for healthcare in 2025. AI is data-heavy so, as you, your partners and customers work on applications, consider edge computing for cost-efficiency and performance.
IoT innovation in healthcare
The sky is the limit for innovation in IoT to support progressively more use cases, more conveniently in healthcare. I was intrigued to see an application this year that detects potential health problems through insoles in diabetic patients’ shoes. The app identifies changes in gait when patients walk and is powered by the energy generated from the patients’ own movement.
We see already how IoT is evolving, from its functional starting point of just getting data, to now when designed solutions are bringing data together. A prime example of this is the transition from a device per application to multifunctional devices that can, for instance, monitor both patient falls and changes in room humidity. This is more efficient, and certainly less intrusive when devices are placed in domestic settings.
As more data points become available to multifunctioning devices and applications, they will help clinicians make more decisions for patient-centred care that considers patient health holistically.
The IoT will play an increasingly significant role as healthcare digitalises, helping it meet real challenges and deliver efficiency objectives. By working together, solutions providers, connectivity providers and device manufacturers can support healthcare with secure, reliable and resilient cellular connectivity for IoT. To find out how Wireless Logic can help, explore our solutions for SIM-based health and well-being applications.
