1. IoT as enabler(future) of Smart Hospital Technology
Intro
Technology is altering our lives. There is no doubt to that. While in
some aspects it is more visible ­ you are probably reading this article on
your phone, or tablet device, who know maybe even on new iWatch.
With the rapid increase of number of smart medical devices, extensive use
and availability of mobile phones and constant demand for better health
care the need for better interconnectivity technology and better solutions is
growing. Some technology will have to connect all of existing and new type
of medical equipment, sensors, wearables together. Besides less people
want to visit hospital, they want to track state of their health using phone or
tablet
IoT for medical connectivity
IoT will not only help us to connect existing medical devices and
technologies together, it will also enable remote control, remote monitoring
and even create a new ecosystem ­ smart hospitals.
IoT is extremely scalable technology. It has gained rapid grows in last
decade, as for medical application it is only starting to boom. The industry
is expected to reach $117 billion dollars by 2020 accompanied by the rapid
increase of number of smart medical devices, extensive use of mobile apps
and better internet connection.
When developing new medical wearable device or app choosing a
technology or making custom architecture for communication is essential
part of design process.
IoT as middleware
IoT middleware helps to connect all sort of medical devices be it
smart bed, patient room ventilation systems or heart rate sensor. Being

2. secure IoT helps to transfer critical medical data, which eliminates need of
handling data from one hand to another.
Another benefit of IoT is data agnostic, we still have old medical devices,
and the rapidly growing amount of new technology. It is quite hard to keep
up with all possible types of information these devices produce, with mobile
app it is of course a little bit easier. Still IoT helps to transfer information
between different endpoints while converting it to its own data format,
which removes necessity for developers to hard code every format to their
system.
IoT serves as enabler for real time healthcare management. It allows
remote monitoring of patient conditions, reduces amount of necessary
medical equipment, and allows doctors and patients to use their time more
effectively. Besides IoT connectivity increases uptime of critical medical
systems which are used in real time monitoring and diagnostics.
Smart Hospital
But IoT does not only help devices to interconnect it also work as a
backbone of so called Medical CRM. With the help of IoT and software
solutions doctors and nurses can monitor patient health, analyze data
retrieved from smart sensors or wearables. This helps to generate more
trustworthy information for the doctor, allowing him to view data directly
from the devices. Medical CRM reduces risks of miscommunication when
talking to the patient directly. Being software it provides effective
scheduling and task tracing both for the doctors and hospital as whole,
allowing for more effective use of time and reducing unnecessary delays.
What can you do with all of the interconnected medical devices, wearables,
mobile apps and Medical CRM? You can connect them together and create
ecosystem which is known as Smart Hospital. With the rapid technology
improvement and internet connectivity of electronics appliance we can add

3. smart building systems, such as temperature control, different sensor
equipment and other electronic equipment typically found in the hospital to
Smart Hospital system through IoT. This will allows different end systems
to exchange information, keep track of doctor, patient location and remotely
monitor state of health monitor.
Connectivity to large computational clusters allows analysis of all sorts of
medical data. Another benefit of IoT, it enables real time data monitoring of
health state though wearable devices. The doctor can keep track of how
well patient is doing without leaving an office and patients do not have to
stay at hospital for weeks
Patient Centered
Patient being heart of this smart hospital system IoT serves as
nervous system transmitting data/impulses and making it all efficient and
scalable. Data rich application is the next step of evolution of smart medical
technologies. All the information about patient will be stored on his mobile
phone and he will be able to make an appointment with doctor without
leaving his flat.
With software advancement, new, more sophisticated health analytics
systems will be able to monitor patient health remotely without patient even
knowing about it. Internet and mobile phone will enable people all around
the world to receive basic medical diagnosis and help them overcome
diseases. Smart analysis of data through the IoT, serving as middleware,
and cloud computing power will gather information from smart health
sensors and store it in the hospital data clusters. Using retrieved data,
smart hospital systems will be able to monitor and inform hospital as well
as patient about state of their health and what medication is necessary at
the moment. Not only it will help to treat different diseases it will also be
able to help take preventative measures, create personalized health
profiles and take work of ordering medication or pills by itself.

4. Future
Future of medical care is to enable hospitals to be patient centered,
remove unnecessary administrative tasks, and improve quality of service.
Medical staff and patients will gain more mobility. Being data oriented, with
all the information being in digital form, Smart Hospital subsystems will be
interoperable as all devices could talk teach other exchanging various
types of information. As systems are no longer directly controlled by people
we can eliminate some errors of human factor. Endpoints will be connected
through fast reliable network with secure connection while, medical data
being stored on the cloud, make it fail safe.
Conclusion
IoT is serving as one of catalyst of medical care quality grows as well
as its availability. In near future we will see improvement in life span
through use of interconnected devices, smart gadgets, big data, health
monitoring as well analytics , with IoT being a glue and enabler of all this
and much more. Who knows maybe IoT, being a middleware, with
combination of big data and supercomputers, like Watson, will create new
breakthrough, preventing us from many diseases.