Internet of Things in Healthcare: A Comprehensive Study on Data Transmission, Security, and Future Applications

ITC595 Research Project (Title)
A. Author
ITC595 MIT, School of Computing & Mathematics, Charles Sturt University
[e-mail]
ABSTRACT – Internet of things Technology has attracted many
researchers due to the scope of benefits it provides. In the
healthcare industry, it turns out to be a game-changer with amazing
aspects gaining strengths with time. The requirement of such
technology can be very fruitful for healthcare. The study of data
transmission in IoT technology and hence the scope of increasing
the security of the data transmission. The data collection, data
cleaning and data estimation are discussed in the detail. The data
flow in the IoT environment plays a key role to enhance the security
and encryption of the data. In-depth study of cryptography and it’s
benefits. The applications of IoT technology in the healthcare
industry with their vital role in the industry. The applications such
as the ingestible pills, AAL (Ambient assisting living) and IoT
controlled quarantine centres. The security and privacy in IoT
devices connected to the cloud. Security of the healthcare data. The
solution offered for the secure cloud data transmissions.
Authentication of the data and measures to secure the data from
the attackers. Future outcomes of IoT technology in healthcare. The
Wireless body area network is also studying for the future
reference, use of machine learning in IoT and communication in the
IoT technology. The IoT devices which could be available in the
future solving the problems monitoring the data. The smartphone
with medical sensors for providing vital data directly to the network
and hence help in monitoring the patients. In future use of the IoT
technology in the management of the healthcare centre and also in
the data management. The Scope of the smart healthcare system I
also discussed in the report. The communication techniques are also
discussed such as the long-range and short-range communication
with the scope of improvement. The use of BLE in short-range
communication being a lightweight technique. The use of the 5G
and cellular network for long-range communication. The secure
encryption of the data using the ABE and FHB schemes in the cloud
however, they cannot be used in lightweight communication.
Keywords— Data transmission, Applications, Cryptography,
Security and privacy, IoT, Future outcomes of IoT.
INTRODUCTION
In the healthcare industry, the internet of things technology
has been a game-changer. The structure of the report
showcases the following step according to the purpose of this
report and stand on the topic. The use of sensors and
actuators provide an enormous amount of help to the health
works and patients to recover shortly. The IoT is also
responsible for alerts and notifications based on the data
provided to the machines by the sensors. As the Internet of
things useful in the healthcare industry is exponentially
growing. According to the recorded data 161million IoT
devices are used in the healthcare industry and by the year
2025, it is expected to reach 188 million devices. The huge
numbers signify the need for IoT in the healthcare industry
and its growth.
Data collection and interoperability are the ability to manage
the data with the help of proper functioning and processing.
The report offers knowledge based on the use of IoT in the
healthcare industry, data transmissions by the devices in
healthcare facilities and their applications. Moreover, Security
and privacy measures in the healthcare systems and their
work mechanism. The applications of the IoT in the healthcare
industries are also discussed in the report. Moreover, the
report gets the futuristic approach towards the outcomes of
IoT in the healthcare industry.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Data management in IoT
According to M. Elhoseny [10] the data management in IoT
technology consists of a certain path, this path is followed to
achieve a certain flow pattern. The steps include data
collection, data cleaning, Data quality estimation and data
inoperability.
Data Collection
The human body provides certain data to the sensors, this
data is then processed by the devices. The data devices such
as the heart rate monitoring system, oxygen meter, CGM
(continuous glucose monitoring) and activity trackers etc. This
data is collected and stored so that they can be sent for the
analysis. These studies help the doctors to provide vital
information regarding the condition of the patients. The
mechanism of these sensor devices which extract this vital
information regarding the patient is blended with the
Bluetooth interface for better connectivity.
The Bluetooth light interface helps provide communication
with the other devices. This helps the communication channel
to build up between the interconnected devices. When the
devices make communication between the other devices, it
authenticates the connection and hence makes it viable for
the other connected devices to extract the data for the
connection. After the connection mechanism identifies
Application programming interface (API), the next step
involves the data acquisition which starts at a high rate of
exchange. The extracted data is then acquired for further
processing.
Data Cleaning: The data cleaning is the process of removing
unnecessary data and checking for the errors in the vital data.
This process is carried out in three stages known as data
validation, data cleaning and data completion.
Data Validation: Data The data validation process constitutes
the quality of the received data. The conformance of the
specific data type, value representation and conformance to
the range and pre-defined values.
Data cleaning: The process is important to abstain the flow
with any kind of errors arising. Thus, the cleaning of the data
plays a key role to abstain the unsettling of the data in the
flow chart.

Data completion: The data completion ensures the missing
data is filled using the analytics, providing data in that voids
safeguarding the data availability.
Data Quality estimation
As mentioned by A. Mavrogiorgou[11] data which is
received from the sensors and the devices can’t be relied on.
This is due to the false data which a device may produce if
they are a faulty device. The data measurements and
evaluation are carried on so that it may be cross-checked with
the values obtained by the devices. This offers a piece of
secure information regarding the data and hence helps in the
clean data to be assured. There are 3 sub-processes which are
very important for the data quality estimation.
Data Availability: Devices calculation regarding the quality
assurance regarding the quality levels of the device. The
metric data from the device provide quality levels of the
devices. hence, it helps the data quality estimation to be more
accurate regarding the data. The ratio of operational uptime of
the device to the overall operation cycle time represents the
data metric of availability.
Availabilty=Uptime /(Overall operation Cycle)
Data reliability: The data reliability is the next step for
ensuring the data quality estimation and hence, it is focused.
The TRR (Test-retest reliability) consists of the patients who
test with the device in a similar situation and under a
particular period. Moreover, the reliability of the data is
achieved from the connected devices.
Overall data Quality: Overall data quality defines the final step
of the data quality estimation process. The combined results
from the data reliability and data availability are then
showcased with the datasets. This results in the quality of the
obtained data from the devices and approved according to
quality.
Applications of IoT technology in
healthcare
As mentioned by the Y.B. Zikria [1] the applications of IoT in
the healthcare industry has been offering great results as they
provide benefits for the data analysis. The internet of thing
provides a connective medium to the healthcare industry
devices making the data analysis more prominent in the field.
Ingestible Sensors
The ingestible sensors are also known as smart pills. The pills
provide vital data adherence and patterns regarding the
patients. Such useful data provide a better perspective
regarding the mechanics of the patient. They do add up to the
health monitoring of the patients as well. These pills ingested
and hence transmit the data from inside the patient’s body.
Such pills are embedded to the monitoring devices such as a
tablet which showcase the received data.
As mentioned by G.J. Joyia [5] after the pill reaches the
stomach it transmits the signals to the sensor patch attached
to the patient. Such signals are then transfigured into digital
form. The digital form can be accessed to the cloud and hence
this data can be accessed using the cloud.
The pill has three important components consisting of the
active layer, integrated circuit and the insulation skirt disk. The
active layer is build using the microfabrication steps where a
layer is deposited directly on the IC. There is a prominent use
of elements such as the magnesium, silicon, gold and copper.
Thus, the sensors are then dyed on the IC with the
pharmaceutical powder applied to them. The active layer on
the pill with the gastric fluids turns up a charge and provide
power to the pill. The transmission of the signals is in the form
of binary codes which provides vital information regarding the
patients.
Ambient Assisting Living
The system assistance for a healthier, better and independent
life for the older people. The automatic system provides
situational information such as the ubiquity, portability and
automatic detection of hazardous situations. Such systems are
necessary to keep the older generation counter the challenges
and hazards. The connective devices provide this information
irrespective of the location of the people. The system may use
wearable devices such as a band. However, the sensor devices
are kept shocked and water-resistant to tackle harsh
conditions.

Since the system requires some of the vital information, it may
or may not ask for permission in emergency cases. The request
related to the voluntary in habitat, automatic request in
emergency and request for the caregiver.
Healthcare system for quarantine centres
The requests for the quarantine raised with the pandemic
caused by air transmission. Hence, the use of IoT devices
provided a solution towards the monitoring of the infected
patients and hence, helped the spread of the disease to a
larger extent. The smart technology provides an alternative
towards the routine monitoring of the patients. The use of
LED-based PPG sensors and Nasal sensors for the respiratory
rate count provide vital data regarding the patients. This data
can be easily accessed by the doctors and nurses for regular
monitoring. Moreover, the smart bands with the sensors
monitoring the pulse provide the ECG rate accurately to the
medical caretakers. Thus, IoT devices help in the patients
monitoring and offer a well connective network.
The Body sensor network is a network of the wearable sensors
connected to the patient’s body during the quarantine to keep
an eye on body mechanics and behaviour. This data is
analyzed by the doctors for the monitoring of the patients.
Security and privacy in the cloud (IoT)
As mentioned by S.B. Baker [2] the security is the primary
issue in the cloud-based systems. Moreover, the risk of
identity theft hovers above the cloud-based IoT environment.
Patient security is important and hence any kind of breach in
the privacy may lead to destructive actions such as identity
theft. Such malicious attacks on the data from the IoT devices
may result in false practices performed by the attackers. They
may fraud the patient’s data and take out the insurance with
the fake identity or even smuggle the data to the third party
for money. Moreover, the attackers may make changes in the
patient’s health record which may have devastating effects on
the patient.
The data encryption[9] and policies meant to control the
authentication are the effects to gain a secure IoT cloud
healthcare process. Thus, this policy keeps an eye on the
authorities who had accessed the patient’s data a certain limit
until which they are allowed to gain access to the data.
Another attempt to provide a secure authentication channel.
This would define a person’s identity and check the other
components which if matched to the personal data will gain
access to it. Moreover, the access logs data will keep a record
of the number of times data was accessed and for what
particular reason. The data encryption is a process to make the
data unreadable even if the attacker gets access to the
database. The heath data which is stored in the storage is an
encrypted data hard to read for the attacker. In term of the
health care applications, there are some of the robust physical
techniques developed to secure the data.
The mechanism works as a guard for the patients’ healthcare
data. The safety policy asks the patients to provide the
credentials to access the data. The patients may provide the
access defined to their selected persons or healthcare
providers to access a limited amount of data. The
authorization credentials are always checked before the
healthcare data can be accessed. Moreover, there are
certainly positive attributes of this kind of system as even if
the healthcare personalities tried to copy data without the
permission of the patients, the alarm notification is received
by the patients immediately warning them that their data is
under an attack[15].
The secure cloud data environment would be a benefit to the
patients and hence the data may be accessed from anywhere
if the credentials and permissions of the data owner are
available. This will be also beneficial for the old age people
who can be taken care of with the healthcare data being
monitored by the loved ones.
The biometrics data pins are another authorization choice for
the secure cloud environment. Healthcare data management
and security increase to a certain extent with the use of the
biometric identity keys as the data can be only accessed by the
persons with permission. Since the healthcare data for the
patients are stored into the servers, the servers are then
prone to the attackers. Hence, to secure the server data, signal
scrubbing is considered. In the signal scrubbing, there is a
special authorization key shared to the patients and the
authorized persons to access data. These key small partitions
of the data called the tiny data are used as a scrabbing key.
Cryptography in IoT

The terminology is used for encrypting the data for IoT
communication in the healthcare industry. The security in the
data transmission is a paramount subject as the data may be
used in an opposite context by the attackers. The hackers try
to break into the IoT Technology to gain access which may
result in false practising. Hence, to secure the private data
under the healthcare for the individuals, there are certain
measures. The use of certain technics leads to build up a
better and more secure IoT interface.
Security requirement in communication:
•Authentication: The identity proves recognized to access the
vital data.
•Privacy: The message data access to the particular individual
for which the message was meant.
•Honestly: Assurance to the receiver that there is no
tampering of the message.
•Non repudiation: Assurance that the sender sent the
message.
Future Outcomes of the IoT
technology in the Healthcare Industry
The future bids for the best solutions based on the IoT
technology in the healthcare industry. There are many of the
further applications which are under the scope of the research
and hence are explored for future opportunities. Not just the
applications but the security techniques of the IoT data
transmission is also very important concerning the secure
future outcomes. Some of the applications are given
below[12].
Wireless Body Area Network
As per T. Wu[4], the internet of things is the all-new paradigm
which offers a vast field of research in this field. The use of
integrated circuit and wireless sensors with low power make a
circuit which extracts the vital data out of the body
parameters. The connective network of such sensors with
wireless body area network or the network. The data through
the body sensor network is transmitted to the application and
hence, notify the others regarding the condition of the patient.
Body Network include the use of the PPG sensors for the heart
rate. The wearables are used of the oxygen saturation,
temperature and humidity during the MRI.
The WBAN requires devices which can be used for a longer
period. Therefore, power consumption is another important
aspect of WBAN. The use of ultra-low-power components
improves the lifetime of the wearable sensors. The ultra-low
powered camera and microphones are used to examine the
patient. As per the requirement, the wearable sensors are also
enriched with the hybrid solar cells to store them as a charge
and hence, increase the usage time of the sensors. The battery
life increase as solar energy is used to charge them up known
to be as solar harvesting.
Use of Machine Learning
Another upgrade to the IoT communication will be the use of
the NB-IoT standard which is used to obtain the best results.
Moreover, the evolution of the cloud-based algorithms which
are capable of extracting the raw data from the complex
sensors data. Other researches include the use of machine
learning and artificial intelligence to perform complex tasks
with precision. The machines are getting smarter with the use
of algorithms and derived integration of artificial intelligence.
There are several types of research which are going on in the
field of Machine Learning specific to the healthcare IoT
devices.
Since data security is a major matter of concern for the IoT
application in healthcare. There is a vast amount of encryption
schemes being worked on focusing the fidelity according to
the implementation of the healthcare applications. [16] The
ABE and FHB are two schemes which are worked on to gain
outcomes in the IoT devices, however, the lack of lightweight
framework makes them hard to be implemented on the
wearable IoT devices.
Communication in Healthcare IoT system
Certain more sensors are being developed to obtain extract
more of the information from the human body. The work done
by the giant pieces of machinery can now be done with the
help of the wearable machines of smaller size. This is the
advancements which are carried on by the evolution of the
technology. The use of 5G network connectivity for the long-
range communication and the short-range communication the
use of low power consuming BLE (Bluetooth low energy)
transmission.
The use of mHealth Communication framework will be biding
favours of the future requirements and hence provide a smart
solution. The privacy architecture provides required
improvements for the futuristic approach to the data. The use
of blockchain[8] mechanism has a better infrastructure and
approach to security. The hashing in the blockchains allow to
achieve the verification and hence the verification can be
carried on with the credibility if the hash blocks. The Use of
RFID tags will improve the Healthcare environment and hence
help them merge with the IoT technology using the 5G
communication for the long-range communication and hence
provide vital data.
IoT devices in Healthcare

The future holds a variety of different devices integrated to
the IoT technology making it easy to monitor the human needs
and interference. There are two types of applications as an
Individual application and Clustered application. The individual
applications are limited to the one person however, the
Clustered application is all about the community approach.
The healthcare devices such as the solar-powered wristbands
and nodes are another good example which is worked on[13].
Smart Phone medicines
The smart phones[6] are evolving gradually with the
integration of many of the important sensors in the phones
making them more capable of just calling someone. The
smartphones with the vital sensor to real the physical
attributes of the human body such as the heart rate,
temperature, tiredness, body sugar levels and even blood
oxygen levels are very important for some of us these days.
The medical phones are need of future integrated with the
different types of sensors for the examination of the patient’s
body after regular intervals. Moreover, the patient’s data is
secured by the encryption in the smartphone to access it. They
examined data can then be collected from the phone and
hence, be used for the data analysis for the actions resulting in
the patient’s recovery. Smartphones in the future might
increase the number of various sensors and data collected
from the node. Thus, with the integrated use of ML
smartphones might be able to provide a solution during the
energy need of the hour and save a life. The artificial
intelligence integration will make the smartphones to be more
decisive and help the owners with the use of technology.
Management of the Healthcare system
The IoT Technology[7] is not only beneficial to the patients but
also to the healthcare organizations saving a lot of money.
Moreover, the best future application of the healthcare
system is based on the management of the healthcare
eternity. The shift scheduling, information of the patients and
integration of the automatic notification through cloud would
offer great features to the organization. The IoT devices with
the biometric attendance will help the organizations to keep a
track on the attendance and also provide to build a secure
environment.
IoT devices which would only run with the help of proper
authentication of the healthcare worker will make it more
manageable for the healthcare organization.
Data management
The encrypted data management will reduce the risk of
identity theft and hence prevail a secure environment for the
patient’s health data. Information data can be only accessed
by the patient and the people authorized by the patients with
limitations. There is a futuristic approach to this data
management, as the data increases, the proper record of the
patients will be bundled up with the previous record available
to the patients with the access credentials, this will help the
doctors to look for the previous healthcare data of the
patients and provide vital information for the futuristic
decisions. Thus, this information will help the doctors to
analyze the healthcare data of the patients and operate
accordingly.
The connective network for the healthcare organization where
the notifications through the messages can be a great choice
of approach so know situations of the patients hence, the
wearable devices will offer vital data and hence, if the body
measures aren’t normal, the notification to the healthcare
staff will help to take emergency measures. This life-saving
approach of IoT technology is very beneficial for the patients
and caretakers.
Smart Healthcare environment
As the technology approaches the near future the hospitals
and healthcare centres require to upgrade their machinery.
This new environment of the connective machines requires
less space and hence have better connectivity than the older
generation machines. The use of the Internet of things is
expected to boom due to its versatile nature [14]. The
management will become easier, hassle-free scheduling, more
secure environment and less requirement of the humans for
monitoring patients are some of the benefits of such
environment. The smart connective healthcare facility is what
we are looking for concerning the future [17]. A better
healthcare system will provide better assistance to the doctors
for a more detailed analysis, this may even save the life of a
person.
As a connective network in the smart healthcare environment,
the doctors will get a better knowledge of patient’s problems.
Real-time monitoring and health record of the data will
provide paramount infographics for the patient’s recovery.
The infographics may further be studied to get a perspective
regarding the future condition of the patients. The use of
Machine learning in IoT may be used to improvise accurate
surgeries with better accuracy.
Cloud computing plays an important role to create such a
smart healthcare environment. Since the data servers are used
to keep all the data securely and implement encryption
technics on the data to increase the security. Moreover, the

firewalls placed on the data servers will make it hard to breach
for the attackers.
CONCLUSION
The report offers a detailed study to the different data
transmissions mechanisms and provides the solutions required
to make the technology more robust in the future generation.
The communication techniques which are vital enough to
tackle the challenges and hence provide a strong solution. The
applications of the IoT technology and benefits of the smart
healthcare facilities. Future outcomes of the IoT in the
management of the healthcare industry with the solutions
related to the data management are also discussed in the
report.
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