How IoT Is Improving the Future of Healthcare
The future of healthcare is in our DNA. It always has been. Every doctor’s visit, every blood test, and every x-ray ever conducted is about one key element: data. Without data, there is no information, no diagnosis, and no recommendations for treatment or recovery. Without medical data about our DNA, we — our minds, hearts, and our bodies — are eternal mysteries to science.
Modern technologies and IoT are not only changing our relationships with our doctors, but also our healthcare plans, and access to medicines and treatments, and more importantly, our relationship with ourselves.
changing the world of data [1]. Never in the history of mankind have people had more access to what is going on inside their own bodies than right now.
A New Era of Medical Honesty
Historically, visits to the doctor’s office entailed a litany of questions designed to mine patients for important data regarding their calorie intake, exercise routines, sex life, smoking and drinking habits, and general lifestyles. The process was a very personal and intimate experience for patients, as they answered — often inaccurately — probing questions about their health. The truth is that people are very self-conscious about how they live and often lie about how they truly behave because revealing such personal information is, for most people, an uncomfortable experience.
IoT, however, is changing this dynamic. Data doesn’t lie. Nor does it judge you for your decisions. Now that wearable technologies are commonplace [2], people have become accustomed to their vital signs being constantly monitored by digital technologies. In fact, today, people are more inclined to self-supervise their bodies and health decisions, instead of waiting for something to go wrong and then heading to the doctor’s office. IoT has created a significant cultural shift regarding the idea of personal responsibility. More and more people are monitoring their own habits and behaviors and changing their lives based on the data in front of them, which presents undeniable truths about their health.
How IoT Inspires Adherence
What began with those wearable technologies and digital devices that counted our steps and measured our heart rates has now evolved into interactive pillboxes, ingestible sensors, and even smart tattoos with special ink that changes colors based on blood sugar and dehydration levels. This next generation [3]
With these devices, technology is now able to motivate and monitor a patient’s ability to incorporate healthy routines into their lifestyles. The sad truth has been that, whether recovering from a heart attack or maintaining proper blood pressure levels, millions of patients every year fail to follow their doctor’s instructions. The consequences can be fatal. However, adherence technology could potentially save countless lives by simplifying and clarifying complex directions and providing real-time monitoring that signals the patient, and even the doctor, when a deviation from those routines requires immediate medical attention.
The Connectivity Revolution
For decades a major inconvenience and inefficiency in healthcare management have been the siloed collection, analysis, and distribution of information. Because a person’s medical records are private information, that information remains in files that are not shared effectively throughout a patient’s lifetime, or even among various doctors and specialists throughout the course of a particular disease or affliction. The results of these outdated processes are at best frustrating, and at worst a threat to one’s health.
However, IoT and monitoring technologies collect health data [4] in real-time, making it instantly available to both patients and doctors and easily transferable as digital data to anyone, anywhere, in the world. And with new blockchain technology — yes, the same technology that renders bitcoin transactions impervious to hacking
No longer must their condition be documented by a doctor’s illegible handwriting and ferried away in a folder into a massive file cabinet. We live in an age of unprecedented connectivity, thankfully. Life is short and IoT helps us optimize the most precious thing we all have: time.
