Healthcare providers are under more pressure than ever before. Global factors such as ageing populations and a shortage of trained healthcare professionals mean services are often stretched to breaking point.
Also, as medical technologies have continued to evolve, patients now have higher expectations of the treatments they receive, further increasing pressures on budgets and operational costs. However, more personalised services take more time to devise and deliver, creating additional burdens on medical staff. These factors can lead to overwork and stress for healthcare workers, sometimes resulting in extended periods of leave, adding to pressure on resources.
So, there is a clear need for change in modern healthcare environments. How can new strategies be put in place that allow for more to be done with the same resources to optimise the efficiency of medical environments, making life more manageable for care providers and improving patient outcomes?
How MIoT Can Enhance Healthcare
One solution to these challenges is improved interconnectivity in medical environments to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the services provided. More specifically, adopting intelligent Medical Internet of Things (MIoT) devices brings potential advances in wearables and remote monitoring, reducing the need for patient visits to busy hospitals and medical centres.
Using MIoT devices on-site can also help automate many routine tasks, freeing staff to concentrate on more critical care. It also helps smooth the journey of patient recovery, allowing people to recuperate in the comfort of their homes.
Indeed, the potential for MIoT is laid bare by the latest market predictions. It is projected to reach revenues of $83.8bn by 2024, growing to $134.4bn by 2029. However, to fully realise that potential, MIoT must overcome challenges such as security concerns and subpar battery performance in existing solutions. This will require the adoption of new low-power technologies and design initiatives such as zero trust for security.
Meanwhile, more widespread adoption of RFID in medical environments for tracking assets and locational information can help reduce waste and mistakes, a common challenge for healthcare providers. Anticipation for MIoT is therefore warranted, but progress must be made.
Bringing MIoT to Life
It is worth establishing a typical interconnected scenario in a healthcare environment to be able to take a closer look at how technological innovation might shape the future of MIoT devices.
A patient could be fitted with a battery-powered wearable device with a sensor that monitors specific health indicators such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, electrocardiogram readings, and glucose levels. This data is transmitted wirelessly to a centralised system through cellular networks and communications protocols, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, LoRaWAN, or Sigfox, and is then aggregated and analysed using big data analytics on cloud-based or on-premises servers.
Should concerning patterns emerge, healthcare professionals are immediately alerted and provided with actionable insights through decision support systems.
That’s just one MIoT scenario at a top-line level. Underlying this infrastructure is a broad array of systems and components that are advancing rapidly. For instance, traditional batteries like lithium-ion coin cells are ideal for sensors and other low-power wearable devices.
However, as the demands for more complex and capable MIoT wearables increase, solutions such as energy harvesting, wireless charging, battery management, power management, and low-power designs are being explored to enhance battery life and maximise power constraints in MIoT designs.
Above: A smart wearable watch for checking vitals Credit: Mouser Electronics
Connectivity is an area of rapid advancement, too. The Wi-Fi 7 standard, for instance, represents an exciting milestone in the ongoing evolution of wireless technology, with a vastly increased channel size that promises to deliver speeds over four times faster than its predecessor.
Wi-Fi 7 offers higher data rates, improved latency, increased capacity, better reliability, and greater range and coverage - all essential enhancements if MIoT is to help deliver faster, more reliable, and more efficient healthcare services.
Edge Intelligence
Advances in edge computing and artificial intelligence are opening the potential for developers to create and optimise solutions with real-world data, making the process of building, deploying, and scaling embedded machine-learning applications easier and faster than ever. For MIoT, this could enable more efficient and accurate processing of medical data at the edge. This means that machine learning models can be run directly on MIoT devices, such as wearables and diagnostic tools, without the need for cloud computing.
For example, Edge Impulse has developed a technology that could revolutionise cancer detection at the edge. The technology enables faster medical processing without the latency associated with cloud computing, while machine learning models can potentially outperform human analysis in speed and accuracy of cancer diagnosis.
This advance effectively democratises healthcare, helping to reduce the reliance on medical professionals based within hospitals and clinics, which is also beneficial for over-burdened, under-resourced healthcare teams.
Overcoming Challenges with MIoT
As products and systems evolve and new applications are developed, challenges such as cybersecurity are brought to the fore. In 2021 a study found that 82 percent of healthcare organisations that use IoT devices have experienced an IoT-related security breach.
Cybersecurity is non-negotiable when it comes to medical devices and their association with patient safety and regulations are consistently being reviewed and tightened.
The European Union has introduced its 2022/2555 Directive on the Security of Network and Information Systems (NIS2), which places the onus on manufacturers of medical products, including networked devices, to implement rigorous cybersecurity risk management measures and strictly adhere to reporting requirements.
Updated guidance on the security of connected medical devices has also been recently issued in places like the US, Australia, and Singapore, reflecting the international consensus on the importance of robust cybersecurity measures.
Health delivery organisations are also considering new cybersecurity strategies. These organisations can typically have thousands of connected medical devices facing multiple vulnerabilities.
Wider adoption of MIoT will see this number rise rapidly in the coming years.
Traditional network security uses a perimeter approach where strong outer security is established, with the network trusting the traffic inside the perimeter. However, this approach can leave health organisations vulnerable in a highly connected environment.
According to the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), rather than employing a perimeter, all connections and events on the network should be considered malicious and unreliable. In other words, zero trust is given to all network components.
The CSA says that healthcare organisations are increasingly implementing zero trust for medical devices, adding that while risk can never be eliminated, ‘zero trust currently provides the best security’ for MIoT. Therefore, policies must be dynamic and calculated from as many data sources as possible.
Another challenge to developing MIoT is the loss and waste problem. As more devices are connected to networks and frequently used in decentralised locations, equipment is likely to be misplaced and forgotten over time. Therefore, tracking assets and providing locational information will become increasingly important.
Above: An RFID scanner being used in a medical storage facility Credit: Mouser Electronics
RFID asset management systems will play a crucial role, allowing healthcare providers to find and track individual items.
RFID is a means of managing inventories, reducing losses, and even facilitating maintenance scheduling, resulting in better asset utilisation, minimising loss, and reducing downtime and waste. Each device can be allocated a unique RFID tag with an identifying number. These tags can be read by handheld devices and linked to a database to log their location and use.
Delivering Better Patient Outcomes
The use of MIoT in healthcare settings will significantly impact the delivery of medical services. By making the most of increased interconnectivity, MIoT enhances the efficiency of healthcare provision while giving patients increased autonomy, which can dramatically improve their quality of life. MIoT also reduces the strain on centralised healthcare facilities and eases the workload of medical professionals, contributing to a more sustainable healthcare system.
While the potential of MIoT is clear, the challenges that accompany this rapid technological advancement must be addressed. Issues such as cybersecurity and effective asset management remain front of mind and will require the innovation and ingenuity of engineers to deliver the necessary solutions.
With a commitment to overcoming these hurdles, the future for MIoT is promising. Connected technologies are set to deliver a future where enhanced healthcare services are more accessible and reliable, heralding a new era of health and well-being for providers and patients alike.
Author details: Mark Patrick, Director of Technical Content, EMEA, Mouser Electronics
