IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) refers to all medical devices, sensors, software, and hospital systems that collect data and securely transmit it via networks. For example, in a hospital setting, IoMT enables bedside monitors, infusion pumps, ventilators, imaging systems, smart beds, and wearable trackers to communicate with each other, so clinicians can view data as close to real-time as possible.
Information is no longer stored on individual machines but flows continuously, documented in the electronic health record (EHR) and displayed to clinicians at workstations, tablets, or on a nurse station dashboard.
A common way to implement an IoMT is to have a device sending signal-based data such as heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, temperature, glucose, motion, or medication dosage.
The data is transmitted from the device to either a gateway or directly to a clinical platform via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or a wired network. Once the data reaches the clinical platform, it is cleaned and labeled, checked for valid parameters, and, if outside those parameters, an alert is triggered. An additional benefit of using IoMT is the ability for an alarm to be “smart”. This means the IoMT system will analyze data from multiple sources, eliminate false alarms, and escalate the alarm only when a pattern indicates a true risk to the patient.
IoMT is used to enhance both safety and efficiency in hospitals. For example, remote patient monitoring within the building allows nurses to monitor patients across multiple rooms simultaneously and respond more quickly to early signs of deterioration.
Using asset-tracking tags enables staff to quickly locate wheelchairs, pumps, and portable ultrasound units, reducing delays. Additionally, smart medication cabinets and connected infusion pumps can support clinician workflow “right patient, right drug, right dose.” Lastly, environmental sensors can be used to track refrigerator temperatures for vaccines and blood products, as well as monitor air quality in isolation areas.
IoMT also supports post-discharge care. Home devices and wearable monitors can transmit recovery data to the care team, enabling them to detect potential readmissions and monitor recovery through virtual visits.
Ensuring IoMT is reliable requires hospitals to focus on security (cybersecurity), ensure devices are patched, segment networks, and develop governance for what individuals or roles may have access to data. Ultimately, when IoMT is implemented effectively, it will reduce manual documentation, increase provider visibility, and allow clinicians to devote their time to patient care rather than documenting it.
However, many IoMT implementations fail because of communication issues between devices. Therefore, hospitals will select systems that support communication via standard methods and provide an integration layer for the electronic health record (EHR).
The design process for IoMT should consider clinical workflows: alerts should be delivered to the correct individual at the correct time and include a clear call to action. Additionally, data quality is important: sensors need to be calibrated, batteries replaced, and timestamp synchronization maintained. Lastly, by measuring outcomes (e.g., reducing adverse events, reducing length of stay, reducing lost or damaged medical equipment), the technology will remain centered on patient care. Change management and training will help staff trust the reading and use the information each day/shift.
A caregiver’s greatest fear while caring for an aging parent from a distance is “Did my parent take their medication?” And what if there were a way for a smart pill bottle to send you a message when a dose is missed, giving you instant peace of mind? That is the power of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). Think about an Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), like a smart home security system, but for your body.
The difference is that instead of a camera watching your front door, or a motion detector, a camera is looking at a medical device and sending alerts to either you or your doctor, when something may be wrong with you, most of the time before you are aware of anything being wrong.
IoMT, at its core, is a group of interconnected healthcare devices—smart inhalers, hospital monitors, etc.—that collect and transmit medical data via secure Internet connections. There is a key distinction here as well.
Your fitness tracking device provides you with wellness trend analysis. An IoMT device is a medical device and, therefore, a type of medical device. A fitness tracking device (e.g., a FitBit) will track how many steps you have taken, etc.; a continuous glucose monitor (a common type of IoMT device) will transmit your real-time blood sugar readings to your doctor so they can take appropriate action.
Ultimately, the goal of all these devices is to provide the right information to the right people at the exact right time. It is also bridging the gap between the patient, the data collected from the patient, and the doctor(s) providing care. Therefore, this advancement in digital health is helping shift care away from reactive, appointment-based models toward proactive, ongoing care, which provides greater safety for both the patient and their family members.
Connected health: Seamless healthcare through device connectivity
Connected Health enables continuous care by enabling secure data sharing among medical devices, apps, and clinical systems. This allows hospital staff to view their patients’ status in an integrated view without having to search for paper records.
At home, Connected Health continues to provide a picture of the patient’s status with wearable devices such as smartwatches or fitness trackers, glucometers, blood pressure cuffs, and scales, which send readings back to clinicians between visits.
IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) is the platform that connects all these medical devices, enabling them to communicate with one another. Examples of this include a heart rhythm alert sending the alert directly to the appropriate clinician, or a trend in a patient’s oxygen saturation triggering early intervention.
Additionally, IoMT enables operational improvements within healthcare organizations, including tracking the location of medical equipment, monitoring temperature in medication refrigerators, and automatically documenting maintenance logs.
When a Connected Health platform integrates with an electronic health record system (EHR), any updates to the patient’s EHR are captured at the point where treatment decisions are made, eliminating redundant data entry and missed details.
To ensure safety when implementing Connected Health systems, organizations need to develop a robust governance framework. Specifically, each connected device needs to be authenticated, traffic needs to be encrypted, and network segmentation needs to occur to prevent a compromised device from compromising the security of clinical systems. Additionally, regular patching, inventory management, and vendor accountability need to be implemented into any IoMT program.
Lastly, patient privacy must be protected; patients have a right to know what data is collected about them, how that data is used, and who has access to it.
Connected Health has the potential to provide many tangible benefits, including reducing avoidable hospital readmissions, improving patient outcomes through personalized care plan development, and enabling faster responses to emergent situations, based on data from real-world experience within a patient’s connected health environment.
In the case of chronic conditions, remote monitoring using the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) technologies in a patient’s home can identify early warning signs of potential exacerbation and support earlier intervention. Similarly, in an acute setting, remote monitoring may help reduce the number of alarms clinicians receive by consolidating multiple data sources and notifying them only of clinically significant events.
The ability of various Connected Health products to communicate with one another via interoperability standards (e.g., HL7/FHIR), enables the sharing of patient information among multiple vendors. However, the success of these systems still ultimately relies on the quality and clarity of data received from each connected medical device, as well as the clinical thresholds that determine which device-generated data trigger an alert.
It is necessary to train staff, test the systems, and continuously monitor how well they work so that the alerts sent to caregivers are actionable and do not represent “noise.” Moreover, it is necessary to have clearly defined downtime procedures so caregivers know what steps to take if a critical system component fails.
Ultimately, for Connected Health to be successful, it needs to be designed with both the workflow and the equity of the patient and caregiver in mind. For example, this includes developing clear alert routing mechanisms; creating easy-to-use onboarding processes for patients to access the technology; providing devices that are accessible to all; and having redundant or backup processes in place in the event of an outage.
When implemented correctly, the use of IoMT and other connected health technologies can transform individual medical devices into a cohesive, efficient healthcare delivery system that is seamless for patients and clinicians alike.
Digital Health Solutions: Connected Systems Improving Hospital Workflows
Digital Health Solutions enable healthcare organizations to be more efficient by improving communication between departments, reducing administrative burdens, and enhancing patient care coordination.
Rather than having clinicians manually enter information onto multiple separate screens and paper-based medical records, Digital Health Solutions allow data from bedside devices, clinical applications, and the electronic health record (EHR), to all update in one place – at the point where decisions are being made.
IoMT has been identified as an important driver, enabling Digital Health Solutions to connect bedside monitors, smart beds, infusion pumps, ventilators, and wearable sensor technologies, thereby creating a secure network.
In addition to automating the flow of vital signs directly into the EHR, reducing the need for duplicate charting and minimizing documentation errors, Digital Health Solutions dashboards, connected to bedside monitor data via IoMT, will allow nurses to identify changes in trends sooner and allocate their time based on risk rather than room number.
In addition to providing better patient care through Digital Health Solutions, the solutions also enhance organizational workflows. For example, real-time location services enable tracking equipment location and whether it is clean, in use, or in need of maintenance.
Pharmacy workflow is also improved through IoMT-enabled pumps and medication systems that reduce mismatched orders and administration. Additionally, transport and imaging teams can utilize Digital Health Solutions to manage request coordination, decrease wait times, and keep patients moving through the care continuum efficiently.
Digital Health Solutions have a significant impact on communication as well. Alerts are directed to the appropriate roles based on context (e.g., nurse, RT, RRT) to reduce alarm fatigue.
The use of IoMT allows alerts to be generated by identifying patterns in multiple signal thresholds; thus, escalations will be more meaningful and timely. Additionally, digital health solutions for bed management will identify when patients are ready to leave their beds by combining data from admissions, discharges, and environmental status to provide quicker patient turnover.
However, to realize the potential of Digital Health Solutions, healthcare organizations require solid fundamentals: an inventory of all devices, established cybersecurity measures, role-based access to ensure that users can only view information relevant to their job function and/or responsibilities, and established and reliable integration standards (such as HL7/FHIR).
In addition, Digital Health Solutions must be designed to meet workflow requirements, including clearly defining who owns alerts, downtime procedures, and providing required training for end-users.
When implemented with thoughtful consideration of the previous items, Digital Health Solutions convert fragmented workflows into integrated processes, resulting in less friction for hospital staff, greater visibility for hospital leadership, and improved delivery of safe and efficient patient care powered by IoMT and integrated clinical systems.
IoMT Devices: Smart Devices Powering Connected Care
IoMT Devices are smart medical tools that collect patient and operational data and connect this data to other medical and operational applications in a secure manner via hospital-wide networks.
IoMT Devices increase connection within healthcare by converting medical measurement data (heart rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, etc.) into information that enables clinicians to respond rapidly. The potential of IoMT is realized by increasing speed, reducing delays, improving monitoring, and supporting safer, more efficient workflow patterns across departments.
Examples of common IoMT Devices include bedside vital sign monitors, wearable ECG patches, pulse oximeters, smart infusion pumps, ventilators, and smart beds that use sensors to track patient movement and fall risk.
Medical imaging equipment and point-of-care diagnostic equipment may be considered part of an IoMT Devices ecosystem when test results are sent into clinical platforms for review. As with all IoMT Devices, these devices can automatically transmit readings directly to dashboards and the electronic health record (EHR), helping reduce manual documentation and allowing clinicians to identify trends over time.
In addition to enhancing patient care and clinician decision-making, IoMT Devices support hospital operations. Asset-tracking tags on infusion pumps and wheelchairs will enable users to locate lost items faster and better utilize these resources. Environmental IoMT Devices can be used to track the temperature, humidity, or air quality of sensitive areas, such as medication refrigerators.
Sterile processing and biomedical teams will benefit from using IoMT Devices to provide reports on usage, errors, and maintenance requirements, preventing downtime and ensuring compliance.
IoMT Devices are connected medical equipment that gather and exchange patient/clinical data with other departments via secure hospital networks. As a result, this network of connected devices increases connectivity of care by converting clinical measurements (e.g., heart rate, blood oxygen level, body temperature, medication administration) to actionable data for rapid clinician decision-making.
Examples of how this technology helps clinicians include faster response times, improved monitoring, and safer workflows throughout their department/unit.
Examples of common IoMT Devices include bedside vital sign monitors, wearable ECG patch devices, pulse oximeters, smart infusion pump devices, ventilator devices, and smart beds that detect movement/fall risk. Additionally, imaging systems and point-of-care diagnostic devices are included in an IoMT ecosystem, provided the results flow into the appropriate clinical platform.
Through IoMT, these devices will automatically send readings to a dashboard/electronic health record, reducing manual documentation/charting and allowing teams to identify trends over time.
Additionally, IoMT Devices can support hospital operational processes. For example, asset-tracking tags placed on smart infusion pumps and wheelchairs can reduce the time staff spend locating equipment and increase overall asset utilization.
Environmental IoMT Devices can track and provide alerts regarding the temperature/humidity/air quality in specific areas of the hospital, such as medication refrigeration storage rooms. Sterile processing and biomedical teams can also receive reports from IoMT devices on usage counts, errors, and maintenance issues, helping reduce potential downtime and ensure regulatory compliance.
IoMT Applications: Practical IoMT Use Cases in Hospitals
IoMT Applications are the practical and ongoing uses of connected devices to enhance hospital care delivery, patient safety, and operational efficiency. IoMT enables a network of devices, software applications, and clinical systems to be connected, enabling healthcare team members to take action based on timely, accurate information. There are a few IoMT Applications that will provide significant benefits if they clearly tie to clinical objectives and measurable improvements to workflows.
Continuous Patient Monitoring is one of the most widely used IoMT Applications today. Continuously monitoring patients’ vital signs by connecting multiple networked vital sign monitors, wearable sensors, smart beds, etc., can provide early warnings of potential changes in oxygen levels, heart rates, or mobility and can trigger alerts to staff.
These signals can also serve as the basis for dashboard reports and the electronic health record (EHR), reducing manual documentation and allowing clinicians to view trends in vital sign values over time rather than individual values.
Smart infusion pumps are an additional IoMT Application which has proven to support safe medication administration. Smart infusion pumps can integrate with medication orders to enforce dose limits and automate data collection for medication delivery. When connected to clinical platforms, IoMT provides a mechanism to support rapid investigation when issues arise with medication administration.
The majority of Operational IoMT Applications will offer a quick win. Asset Tracking enables staff to quickly locate devices such as pumps, wheelchairs, and portable imaging devices, reducing wasted time and rental costs.
IoMT Applications are the practical and ongoing uses of connected devices to enhance hospital care delivery, patient safety, and operational efficiency. IoMT enables a network of devices, software applications, and clinical systems to be connected, allowing healthcare team members to take action based on timely, accurate information. There are a few IoMT Applications that will provide significant benefits if they clearly tie to clinical objectives and measurable improvements to workflows.
Continuous Patient Monitoring is one of the most widely used IoMT Applications today. Continuously monitoring patients’ vital signs by connecting multiple networked vital sign monitors, wearable sensors, smart beds, etc., can provide early warnings of potential changes in oxygen levels, heart rates, or mobility and can trigger alerts to staff.
These signals can also serve as the basis for dashboard reports and the electronic health record (EHR), reducing manual documentation and allowing clinicians to view trends in vital sign values over time rather than individual values.
Smart infusion pumps are an additional IoMT Application which has proven to support safe medication administration. Smart infusion pumps can integrate with medication orders to enforce dose limits and automate data collection for medication delivery. When connected to clinical platforms, IoMT provides a mechanism to support rapid investigation when issues arise with medication administration.
The majority of Operational IoMT Applications will offer a quick win. Asset Tracking enables staff to quickly locate devices such as pumps, wheelchairs, and portable imaging devices, reducing wasted time and rental costs.
Remote Patient Monitoring: Real-Time Monitoring Beyond Hospital Walls
Remote Patient Monitoring is an electronic system that allows Clinicians to monitor their patients between office visits by collecting patient health information at home and sending it electronically to their Care Team(s).
The devices used to collect the patient’s health information include Connected Blood Pressure Cuffs, Pulse Oximeters, Scales, Glucometers, and Wearable Devices that measure the patient’s vital signs either on a scheduled basis (e.g., daily) or continuously. These devices are generally part of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) Ecosystem and collect vital sign data from these devices, then send it to a Clinical Platform for Review and Alerting.
Practically speaking, remote monitoring is most successful when it has been clearly defined as part of a larger strategy to identify Deterioration Early, Prevent Readmission, Support Chronic Disease Management, etc. Using the IoT capabilities of your Clinical Platforms, your patient readings can be automatically sent into Dashboards that Highlight Trends, Missed Measurements, or Values that fall outside of Personalized Thresholds.
Additionally, remote monitoring facilitates Post-Discharge Recovery by allowing your teams to verify whether the patient is taking their medications, increasing their physical activity, and experiencing reduced symptoms and/or improved overall condition without having to continually see the patient in person.
Remote Patient Monitoring Programs that are effective outline the personnel who will respond to remote alerts, as well as the promptness of response and action(s) which will occur after receiving an alert (i.e., call the patient, adjust medication regimen, schedule a televisit, etc., and/or escalate to urgent care). Many hospitals pair IoMT-generated data with symptom questionnaires and televisits, providing context and reducing false alarms.
In addition, Remote Patient Monitoring can improve equity by making devices easy to use, providing clear instructions, and ensuring that help is available for setting up and troubleshooting the device(s).
Security and Privacy are critical. Therefore, Remote Patient Monitoring must use encryption to transmit data, provide secure user identification, and employ role-based access controls. Additionally, all IoMT devices require regular maintenance, including firmware updates, battery management, and regular connectivity checks. Finally, Remote Patient Monitoring platforms must obtain and document patient consent, and clearly explain how their data will be used and stored.
To evaluate the success of Remote Patient Monitoring, teams should track engagement (i.e., adherence rates), clinical outcomes (e.g., blood pressure/glucose levels), and utilization metrics (e.g., ED visits/readmission rates). When designed to align with both clinician workflow and patient experience, IoMT-enabled Remote Patient Monitoring provides a practical solution to extending care beyond the hospital walls while allowing clinicians to remain informed in “near real-time”.
How Does Remote Patient Monitoring Keep You Safer at Home?
Imagine Maria has a heart problem, which is being managed at home by her physician. He gives her a smart blood pressure cuff and a smart scale. Every morning, as she uses those tools, the data is automatically and safely transmitted to her care team at the hospital. She does not need to do anything else, such as write it down or call her physician. The systems run quietly behind the scenes. That is the core concept of Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM).
The constant flow of data for remote patient monitoring is what makes this process work. Instead of just looking at a single snapshot of Maria’s health at her once per month office visit, her nurse will be able to see a pattern develop over several days — such as a sudden weight increase or an elevated blood pressure reading — and then contact Maria to make changes to her care plan right away, possibly saving her a trip to the emergency room and keeping her on a steady course at home.
“Remote Monitoring (RPM) and Telehealth are two separate technologies. Think of Telehealth as a “Video Call” you schedule with your Doctor to address a specific concern. Remote Monitoring, on the other hand, is a “Smoke Detector” for your Health, always watching and collecting real-time data, and will only send an alert if something is wrong. One is for Planned Conversations, while the other is for Continuous Automated Watchfulness.
The primary goal of Remote Monitoring is to provide you with peace of Mind and to give you Proactive Care through Information Gathered about Daily Life. This System relies on Smart Devices to collect the data. So What are these Wearable Health Sensors, and What Kind of Things do They Detect?”
Wearable Health Tech: Wearables Tracking Vital Health Signs
The way clinicians and patients perceive and interpret their health has changed dramatically with wearable technology that continuously monitors vital signs rather than only at a doctor’s appointment. Smartwatches, ECG patches, fitness bands, and many other devices used to monitor and measure physiological responses such as heart rate, heart rhythm irregularities, blood oxygen levels, skin temperature, sleep patterns, and activity are examples of Wearable Health Tech.
When these Wearable Health Tech devices are interfaced with hospital systems, they become an integral component of the IoT Medical Technology (IoMT) ecosystem, converting continuous measurements into clinical signals.
Wearable Health Tech supports early detection in hospitals by tracking patients throughout the recovery period, post-procedure, and while ambulating in the patient care unit. Teams can now use trendline data and be alerted when readings exceed clinically acceptable values, rather than relying solely on intermittent spot checks.
Additionally, Wearable Health Tech can help reduce the number of wires for some patients and provide greater comfort for others, while maintaining visibility for nurses. Data collected from Wearable Health Tech devices with IoMT capabilities can be integrated into dashboards and the electronic health record, allowing clinicians to provide more accurate documentation and response times.
Beyond the confines of the hospital, remote follow-up programs for chronic diseases like heart failure, COPD, and diabetes-related complications are now possible through Wearable Health Tech, which in many cases combines wearable data with patient-reported symptoms via check-in calls or video visits that provide context for the numbers.
The technology allows for early warnings of potential problems – (decreased) activity, increased resting heart rate, decreased oxygen saturation, etc., — enabling care teams to take action before an emergency occurs, thus helping to reduce avoidable readmission rates.
There are many factors to consider when deciding whether to implement Wearable Health Tech — safety and usability depend on the reliability and security of data transmission from sensors to healthcare providers.
Therefore, hospitals and healthcare providers evaluate the accuracy of the sensors, the validation evidence for the sensors, battery life, ability of the device to accurately measure during movement or where there may be contact issues, etc., and the overall governance of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), including encryption, authentication, role-based access, and obtaining clear patient consent for data sharing.
Wearable Health Tech has the potential to empower patients to better understand their bodies and enable clinicians to gain a clearer understanding of what is happening between clinic visits. As the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) continues to grow, Wearable Health Tech will enable a more proactive, connected approach to delivering patient-centered care by providing personalized threshold values, smarter alerts, and the opportunity to deliver timely interventions for patients at risk of acute illness.
What Are Wearable Health Sensors and What Can They Detect?
What began as a simple RPM measuring system using smart devices will continue to grow into something much bigger. A “Wearable Health Sensor” is a small device, such as a watch, patch, or clip, that puts this concept on your body. While a consumer fitness tracker may measure how many steps you have taken, a medical-grade wearable has been cleared by the FDA to monitor your condition. Therefore, it can be a clinical tool for your physician to use to track:
• Atrial Fibrillation (AFib)
• Sleep Apnea
• Fall Risks
• Seizure Activity
The most innovative example of a wearable sensor is the Electrocardiogram (ECG), which is now being used on many smartwatches. An ECG is essentially a single snapshot of your heart’s electrical activity. If you notice a rapid heartbeat or palpitations, you can simply have an ECG performed immediately.
Many people who experience arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm, will never know they are experiencing this condition. Because an ECG can provide your physician with valuable information about irregular heartbeats, such as AFib, this technology is becoming increasingly important in any modern guide to personal health monitoring.
In addition to tracking your heart’s electrical activity, these wearables also serve as a vital safety net. Fall detection technology is being developed in watches and pendants that can distinguish between a person tripping and a person falling.
If a fall is detected and the wearer does not respond, the device can contact emergency services and alert the wearer’s family. This technology can provide great peace of mind for those elderly individuals who live alone. What about when we want to track what is happening internally within our bodies? Can a “Smart Pill” actually remind us to take our medication?
Can a “Smart Pill” Really Help You Take Your Medicine on Time?
The moment we’ve all experienced: “Did I take my pill today?” Missing a dose can be a minor irritation for some, but for individuals with chronic diseases, it can have significant implications. Smart pill bottles are designed to remind patients to take their medication.
While these are just ordinary plastic pill bottles, they provide reminder capabilities through lights, sounds, and/or mobile phone notifications. Furthermore, if a patient misses a dose, many smart pill bottles will notify a designated family member or caregiver, thereby giving both parties an added sense of security.
The above is a basic example of how smart pill bottles build on the concept of smart pill technology (also known as ingestible sensors) for medication adherence. Ingestible sensors are small electronic devices that are placed inside a medication when administered to the patient.
The sensors are approximately the size of a grain of sand. Upon ingestion, the sensor is activated in the patient’s stomach and communicates with a small patch attached to the patient’s skin. This patch then transmits data from the ingestible sensor to the patient’s doctor, confirming whether the prescribed medication was taken. This represents a significant advancement in the relatively new area of digital therapeutics.
Both smart pill bottles and ingestible sensors were developed to address one of the largest issues associated with healthcare: ensuring patients take their prescribed medication as directed. When medications are taken as directed, they are significantly more effective at achieving optimal health results.
This translates into improved health status for patients, reduced emergency room visits, and allows physicians to better assess what is working and what is not for each individual patient. This same ‘smart’ approach is also having a positive impact on patients with chronic conditions such as asthma. How do smart inhalers make it easier for people with asthma to breathe?
How Do Smart Inhalers Help People with Asthma Breathe Easier?
The first time we’ve forgotten to take a pill — “Did I take my pill this morning?” — may have been a nuisance for many of us; forgetting to take our medication can be a serious matter for people who manage chronic illnesses. Smart pill bottles will give you the confidence that your medication has been taken, as they are not just ordinary plastic containers.
Smart pill bottles are containers that remind you when it’s time to take your medication using light, sound, and in some cases, sending a notification to your phone. Smart pill bottles can send alerts to a designated family member or caregiver if a dose is missed, so that both parties can feel at ease knowing that you took your medication.
Smart pill bottles are a simple example of how far technology has advanced in reminding patients to take their medications. Ingestible sensors, often called smart pills for medication compliance, represent a significant advancement in helping patients remember to take their medication. Smart pills for medication compliance are medications that contain a small (sand-grain) size sensor.
The sensor becomes active once ingested into the stomach, sends a signal to the patch the patient wears, and then transmits that information to the patient’s physician. This allows the physician to confirm that a critical medication was taken and represents an important area of study in the new field of Digital Therapeutics.
Both smart pill bottles and ingestible sensors are designed to address the single largest challenge facing the medical community today — ensuring that patients take their medication as directed.
When patients adhere to the treatment plan as intended, the treatment is much more likely to be successful, resulting in improved health outcomes, fewer hospitalizations, and allowing physicians to get a clear understanding of what works and what doesn’t. The “smart” approach to helping people with chronic diseases such as asthma is to enable them to breathe more easily with smart inhalers. What makes smart inhalers so helpful for people with asthma?
What Happens When the Hospital Itself Becomes “Smart”?
Smart hospitals take the concept of “connected care” far beyond our personal devices — they are changing the way hospitals operate. The use of those same devices creates a nearly invisible safety net for each of us while we’re patients in a hospital. The smart bed is a great example of smart hospital technologies.
Smart beds can detect when someone who may fall out of their bed is trying to stand up, alerting a nurse immediately, and also help in preventing painful pressure ulcers by tracking how many hours per day a patient spends sitting or lying in the same spot (which allows the medical staff to be able to intervene with some type of preventative care).
The most important benefit of using smart devices in this way comes from how they will interact with each other. For instance, the connected IV pump, which delivers medications to a patient, can check the ID on the patient’s wristband before administering the medication to confirm that it matches the physician’s electronically written order.
This provides a critical element of patient safety, greatly reduces the risks associated with human error, and ensures that the correct amount of the correct medication is delivered at the exact time ordered.
To the patient, having a network of smart devices means a safe, close-to-home hospital experience, with a silent guardian working behind the scenes to assist doctors and nurses and add another layer of protection to catch potential errors before they become actual errors. Therefore, when connecting the dots from your home to the hospital, what are the greatest benefits of having all of these connected devices?
What Are the Top 4 Benefits of All These Connected Devices?
When you connect everything—your smart inhaler at home to your smart bed in the hospital—you are going to be able to create a whole new way to think about managing your health. For decades, healthcare has been reactive: you get sick, you go see the doctor, and they treat you. The ultimate purpose of connecting all these devices is to help us become more proactive about our health. These devices give both you and your physician the ability to monitor your health trends, enabling them to identify many health problems before they develop or before you experience symptoms.
The other three major ways that all of this technology can improve healthcare include:
- Proactive Health: With devices such as smart glucose monitors, you will be able to identify concerning trends that may result in a small adjustment to your daily routine to prevent a much bigger problem that could require a hospital stay.
- Safer Healthcare: In smart hospitals, there are automated systems that help double-check medication and continuously monitor the patient, resulting in less opportunity for human error, thus creating a strong safety net.
- Increased Convenience: RPM (Remote Patient Monitoring) allows you to conduct simple check-ins with your physician remotely, reducing the number of trips you need to take to their office and providing you the flexibility to manage your health from the comfort of your own home.
- More Accurate Data: With the use of connected healthcare devices, you and your physician receive a more accurate picture of your health, not just a snapshot from your annual appointment.
By implementing technology that improves the delivery of patient care, you gain greater direct control over your healthcare decisions. Access to your own personal health data empowers you to become an active participant in your care, rather than simply a passive patient. Of course, this also raises a significant concern about whether your private health information is truly secure on these devices.
Is My Private Health Data Really Safe with These Devices?
It is understandable to ask: “If my most private health information is available online, how can I be sure that hackers will not get their hands on it?” The concerns about patient data privacy in digital health are legitimate and fall into two general categories: that someone will steal your information stored online, or that someone will modify (i.e., tamper with) your device.
Of these, the most common category of medical device cybersecurity threat is data breaches, which are essentially similar to the types of hacking reported at large retailers. In a data breach, a hacker targets a server used by a health company to store patient data and attempts to steal large amounts of name, birthdate, and health condition information.
While your data is certainly valuable, a data breach is primarily an example of information theft rather than a direct cause of physical harm. Data breaches occur across all sectors of the digital economy — not just the healthcare sector.
While less likely, the second category of risk is the possibility that a hacker may gain access to a medical device (e.g., an insulin pump) and thereby gain remote control over it. Manufacturers and regulatory agencies take this type of threat very seriously due to its potential consequences.
Therefore, the top priority in designing devices is to prevent unauthorized access. Due to the high risks of unauthorized device access, significant efforts are being made to design devices with robust security features to ensure that the user (and/or their physician) is the only one with access to the device.
How Is Your Medical Data Protected? The “Digital Armored Car” Analogy
When considering the many risks associated with sending your personal health data across public networks, it makes sense to ask yourself, what will stop a hacker from accessing your data? One way to think about this is to compare your personal health data to your credit card number; you would not want to mail your credit card number on a postcard. Similar to mailing your credit card number, your personal health data is never sent in the open.
When your personal health data leaves your device, it is encrypted into a coded format that is virtually unreadable to anyone attempting to intercept it during transmission to your healthcare provider.
A second method of protecting your data is implementing HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), the Federal Law governing Patient Data Privacy in Digital Healthcare. The HIPAA law outlines how your data should be handled, stored, and protected.
All companies that develop Medical Devices and Apps must comply with HIPAA guidelines. As such, failure to adhere to HIPAA-compliant guidelines for health apps can result in significant monetary penalties. As a result, there is a strong disincentive for companies developing health apps to ensure that they protect your data.
Therefore, effective Cybersecurity for Medical Devices is a multi-layered defense system comprising multiple security levels. First, security is implemented on the medical device itself to prevent unauthorized access. Second, the data is encrypted as it transmits across the network. Thirdly, the server at the healthcare provider has implemented robust security measures to protect the information upon arrival.
Although manufacturers and legislative bodies implement the basic layers of security, the best results come from an engaged user. Users’ online actions directly affect the security of their information.
What Is My Role in Keeping My Health Data Secure?
What does taking an active role in your own digital health security entail? To start, it isn’t necessary to have a technical background — simply adopt several easy, effective habits to help protect your personal data. Think of these as the common-sense guidelines for maintaining your digital well-being, similar to hand-washing for your physical well-being. In addition to the built-in safety measures for your digital health, there are three very important steps you can take to enhance your overall security.
The first is to create strong, unique passwords for each health app or patient portal you use. Using the same password for all your apps or portals is like using the same key to unlock your home, car, office, etc. The second thing is to be careful when signing up for free wellness apps, because many of these apps are not subject to the same HIPAA compliance standards that govern your doctors’ electronic systems. Before connecting your wearable health monitoring device, take a minute to review the app’s privacy statement.
Thirdly, if available, enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). 2FA is essentially a way to require two keys to access your account, rather than just one. Your password is the first key, and the second is a temporary, single-use code sent to your mobile device. Although this is a simple procedure, 2FA provides a significant layer of protection against unauthorized access to your account, thereby safeguarding your patient data privacy in the realm of digital health.
What is the Role of AI in This Connected Future?
A doctor cannot read a device’s constant stream of updates on their own. That is why we use artificial intelligence (AI). In medicine, AI is not a robotic assistant as depicted in science fiction; it is a very capable assistant to your healthcare team.
An AI system can quickly scan thousands of health reading results for anything that may require your doctor’s attention. The reason an AI system can do this is because of the massive data analysis capabilities that allow the healthcare team to focus on the important details rather than get bogged down in the noise.
Another advantage of the AI technology is its ability to identify trends in large amounts of data that a human being would never catch. For example, if your blood pressure remains within a normal range but has been gradually increasing each morning for a week, the AI system will have identified a trend and alerted the doctor. A doctor can take action against what was once considered a small problem before it becomes a larger one.
Although an AI system identifies potential issues, a qualified physician makes all of the diagnoses and decides the course of action. Thus, AI systems are not intended to replace physicians but instead help them identify potential concerns early and act on them before they develop into more serious issues. Smart technology working hand in hand with human expertise is revolutionizing how connected medicine will operate in the future, creating a more personalized and proactive form of healthcare than ever before.
What’s Next? A Glimpse into the Future of Connected Medicine
What does this emerging technology have in store for the medical field? The future of connected medicine will be more than just the ability to send additional alerts to patients. It could be the development of entirely new treatment methods. Some of the most promising areas are referred to as Digital Therapeutics. These are essentially prescriptions that, rather than prescribe medication, provide access to a proven clinical application or software program.
Using this definition of Digital Therapeutics allows us to envision a physician prescribing an app that uses interactive lesson plans to help manage anxiety, or a program that provides guidance for physical therapy from the comfort of your own home via your own device.
Another exciting area for development is the constant flow of health information provided by the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). This could lead to the creation of truly customized, or personalized, care tailored to each patient’s individual body characteristics. Many treatments today are developed using data from averages. With IoMT, your care can be customized to fit you specifically in real time.
An example would be a smart insulin pump that not only reacts to your current blood glucose levels but also learns your body’s patterns, adjusting your insulin delivery based on how well you slept, what you consumed, and how active you were. This shifts the paradigm of healthcare from one-size-fits-all to one that fits you perfectly.
The largest and perhaps most important shift will be from treating illness to proactively maintaining wellness. The objective of connected medicine will no longer simply be to treat you when you become ill, but to provide you and your physicians with the tools necessary to maintain you as a healthy individual in the first place.
Continuous, non-obtrusive monitoring will allow your healthcare team to monitor your health as part of your everyday routine, not just during scheduled appointments. Once you understand the potential of connected medicine, it will be easier to begin discussing the possibilities for your own care.
How to Talk to Your Doctor About IoMT
What may have originally been thought to be a vast world of medical gadgetry has become apparent. The Internet of Medical Things is nothing more than a way to connect you to your own health in a more direct manner. Your education on these technologies has progressed from merely hearing a buzzword to understanding how they operate (not to replace your doctor) and, ultimately, to creating a stronger partnership with your doctor. This knowledge will empower you to be more proactive in your own healthcare.
The next time you visit your physician, you will feel confident when discussing the potential for using technology to improve patient care. This does not mean you want a specific device; rather, you want to explore ways to be more involved and provide your physician with a clearer picture of your health between visits.
If you would like to begin the dialogue, ask your physician some basic questions regarding personal health monitoring:
- Is there a remote monitoring system available for my condition?
- Are there any recommended mobile apps or devices that I could utilize to monitor my health at home?
- If I were to use a device such as one described above, what would happen to the data I enter, and how would my data remain confidential?
Technology is only a tool; however, the true power lies within the enhanced ability to communicate and make informed decisions. By asking these questions, you are not only learning about additional options; you are transitioning from being a passive patient to an informed and active participant in your own healthcare.
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