An interesting inflection point

Healthcare is one such domain where the advent of IoT is a boon. The first thing that I want to cover is the fact that its an interesting inflection point. Healthcare IoT ecosystem centers around the idea of improving the healthcare delivery mechanism by using non-traditional methodand use of IoT in services like Remote health.The most exciting business model will be in the healthcare on demand vertical.

I believe IOT healthcare solutions could help empower the patient community by providing them with a platform to engage with the healthcare system in real time and by collaborating with all the stakeholders.

Hospital is not a fun place to be in

A study done by Institute of Medicine in 2012 shows interesting results, it was observed that ..

33% of hospital patients suffer some form of preventable harm during their hospital stay… IOM, 2012

What it means is Hospital is not a fun place to be in, at times you end up getting a disease quite unaware of and so we believe Hospital should be only for the people who are chronically ill and who need intensive care. So what is implied is that we need to move away from acute care / episodic care management to regular health care monitoring.

We believe with passage of time, healthcare delivery mechanism will move from, at the Clinic, in your home, to continuous monitoring due to wearables and medical devices worn by the users, resulting in the bigger ecosystem of what we now call 'Connected Health'

Drivers of IoT

Manpower Shortage

World over we are facing acute global shortage of trained doctors and nurses,we cannot overnight improve on this scenarioso the best option is to optimize itsince we have limited resources and the demand for trained manpower is high.

No. of Hospital beds

There is an increasing demand for care but the no of hospital beds available in India is low compared to the rest of the World, it has only 1.3 beds available for every 1000 patients.

Anytime, Anywhere access (Healthcare on demand)

What with so many smartphones around, with 220 million users, India is now World’s second biggest smartphone market and there is an increasing demand of anytime, anywhere access. Through the Internet of Things anything in the healthcare system could be tracked and monitored on demand

HealthCare is based on continuous healing relationships.

The whole idea is that the Patients should receive care whenever they need it and in many forms, not just face-to-face visits. Now, this implies that the health care system must be responsive at all times and access to care should be provided over the Internet,by telephone, and by other means besides in-person visits.

Why REMOTE PATIENT MONITORING

Remote patient monitoring presents tremendous potential to disrupt traditional healthcare delivery models and expand the reach of quality healthcare to the aging and remote population. By remote monitoring and the use of IoT, healthcare services can be provided to people in remote locations.

Current healthcare delivery systems fall short of meeting public health needs due to physical and geographical barrier. At the moment technology platforms like medical call centers and messaging & appointment platfroms break such barriers by maximizing the output of the limited health worker force, for a wider audience.

Real time communication is critical in health-related emergencies. Integration of such platforms into mainstream healthcare services will go a long way in meeting the health needs on a large yet cost-effective scale.

Some of the features of Remote healthcare IoT with a large series of sensors and devices alongwith the Internet of Things IoT and a host of digital service applications, is now possible to deploy cost effective infrastructure that will oversee the vital parameters of the patient on a continuous basis.

IoT also enables cloud based systems to study various health parameters of the patient around the clock and provide necessary alerts and interventions at near real time.