IoT in Healthcare: Advantages, Disadvantages, Future Scope and Mitigation Techniques

Discover how IoT is transforming the healthcare industry with its advantages like better patient engagement, real-time data for care managers, increased interest level of patients, and reduced healthcare cost. However, there are also disadvantages like concern about patient privacy and security breaches. Learn about future scope and mitigation techniques to ensure data security.

IOT in healthcare

INTRODUCTION
• Healthcare industry remains among the fastest
to adopt the Internet of Things
• Reason for this trend is that integrating IoT
features into medical devices greatly improves
the quality and effectiveness of service
• It introduces high value for the elderly,
patients with chronic conditions, and those
requiring constant supervision
• Use of IoT in healthcare has increased with the
growth of the internet.

ADVANTAGES
• Better patient engagement: effective patient engagement plays a key
role in the implementation of value-based care program
• With the help of IoT applications, patients gain the ability to utilise
apps
• Patients can use software that can help them in accessing the health
data
• Patients can be aware of their health situation with the help of IoT

Some more advantages
• Real-Time Data for Care Managers: care managers
can get access to the real-time data of patients.
• With the help of modern applications of IoT, the care
managers can monitor the health of the patients in
real time
• Increased Interest Level of Patients: With the
implementation of IoT applications, patients
increased their interest in fitness
• Reduced Healthcare cost: Availability of real-time
data via wearable devices provides the possibility of
better remote monitoring of patients
• reduces the overall healthcare cost, as doctors do not
require to meet patients physically

Disadvantages
• Concern about patient privacy: with the
implementation of IoT, the risk of loss of patient
data has increased
• Critical data of patients can be misused by
unauthorised users
• Security breaches: data stored in the systems of the
healthcare organisation posses a threat of security
breaches such as hacking, data loss or data theft
• Security threats are created from devices with no
encryption
• Resources still reside locally comparing with cloud
usage

FUTURE SCOPE
• Use of IoT in the medical field will increase in the reduction of time
required for diagnosis
• Effective real time monitoring of health of patients
• Effective for implementing on-time diagnosis system
• Helps in creating effective relationship among the patients and
doctors
• Devices like fitness trackers, blood glucose monitors assists the
patients to monitor their health

Mitigation techniques
• Properly setup the network
• Implement effective firewalls
• Effectively distribute the data in various servers
• The role of each individual connected in the network
should be clearly defined
• Infuse real-time intelligence to detect subtle changes
• Insist that your vendors improve device security
• Change default credentials and passwords [2]

IMPLEMENTATION
• Routers, switches, and hubs are implemented in the network of the
healthcare organisation
• Cloud is implemented for effective storing of patient’s data
• Proper security measures are implemented to ensure data security
• Sensitive data is protected with the help of robust firewalls
• Devices with the medical records of the patients is encrypted
• Wireless body sensors are monitored regularly to check the health of
the patients [3]

References
[1] Gope, Prosanta, and Tzonelih Hwang. "BSN-Care: A secure IoT-based
modern healthcare system using body sensor network." IEEE Sensors
Journal 16.5 (2016): 1368-1376.
[2] Tyagi, Sapna, Amit Agarwal, and Piyush Maheshwari. "A conceptual
framework for IoT-based healthcare system using cloud computing."
Cloud System and Big Data Engineering (Confluence), 2016 6th
International Conference. IEEE, 2016.
[3] Kulkarni, Alok, and Sampada Sathe. "Healthcare applications of the
Internet of Things: A Review." International Journal of Computer
Science and Information Technologies 5.5 (2014): 6229-32.