In today's advancing world of technology, the demand for effective and enhanced healthcare services is more crucial than ever. The introduction of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has taken digital healthcare services to a new and advanced platform. A succession of technical and cultural changes is allowing technology and people to become more linked, leading to the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) - a network of connected, smart gadgets and items that can communicate with one another. As for now, in various places, IoMT is often referred to as healthcare IoT.
The IoMT brings together people (e.g., patients, physicians, etc.), patient data/information, caregiving services, and enablers (connected medical devices and mobile applications). Medical devices that use wi-fi support the connectivity of machine-to-machine which are the key components of the IoMT ecosystem. The IoMT devices communicate with the help of the cloud systems such as Amazon Web Services and this system records, analyzes, and stores the data.
Influencing Factors for Growing IoMT Demand
There are various factors responsible for the growing adoption of the Internet of Medical Things among the population. While some of the major impacting factors are as follows:
• High Need for Remote Patient Monitoring: The remote patient monitoring is also referred to as “Telemedicine/ Telehealth”. The increase in chronic illnesses and/or infectious diseases such as cancer, asthma, arthritis, diabetes, and many more with an aging population is factor influencing the uptake of this technology. As senior citizens have a high possibility of facing greater health difficulties, thus by the help of IoMT devices combined with software apps on phones they can now be utilized to assure safety and notify in emergency situations.
• Enhanced Operations: The IoMT enhances hospital operations by providing healthcare professionals with more centralized management over their traditional facilities. IoMT equipment further offers patients more vision into their surroundings, as well as new technology such as robotic surgical assistance and high-resolution digital imaging systems.
• Awareness Among the Population: The major trend for the high awareness is attributed to COVID-19. This pandemic induced more individuals to adopt e-Health technology and health monitoring systems such as monitoring body temperature, blood-oxygen level, blood pressure, sleep cycle, heartbeat, and so on.
• Expensive Healthcare Services: As of today, the cost of healthcare services is touching the sky, and in some cases, these facilities are unaffordable for many people especially in underdeveloped countries. While IoMT services have a great potential in the cost factor for healthcare services by eliminating a few steps such as the need for a personal consultation and traveling time and thereby offering economical methods of continuous health monitoring.
Future Of IoMT
Looking at the current scenario of IoMT facilities and their growing popularity among people all around the globe, it is not surprising that IoMT service will change the whole landscape of e-Health or the healthcare sector. With the growing advancement of this technology, physicians will be able to gradually adapt the e-preventative technology and thus encouraging patients to live longer and healthier lives.