Everything You Wanted to Know about Smart Healthcare
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Everything You Wanted to Know about Smart Health Care: Evaluating the
Different Technologies and Components of the Internet of Things for Better
Health
Article · January 2018
DOI: 10.1109/MCE.2017.2755378
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Everything You Wanted to Know about Smart Health Care: Evaluating the
Different Technologies and Components of the Internet of Things for Better
Health
Article · January 2018
DOI: 10.1109/MCE.2017.2755378
CITATIONS
17
READS
4,588
4 authors:
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
Memristors: Modeling, Circuit Design, and Applications View project
DEVELOPMENT OF A BIOMETRIC HARDWARE MODULE INCORPORATING NFC FOR PEER-TOPEER MONEY TRANSFER & IDENTITY VIRTUALIZATION View project
Prabha Sundaravadivel
University of North Texas
13 PUBLICATIONS 89 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Elias Kougianos
University of North Texas
155 PUBLICATIONS 1,290 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Saraju P. Mohanty
University of North Texas
365 PUBLICATIONS 3,246 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Madhavi Ganapathiraju
University of Pittsburgh
93 PUBLICATIONS 806 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
All content following this page was uploaded by Saraju P. Mohanty on 08 January 2018.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.
1
Everything You Wanted to Know about Smart Healthcare
By Prabha Sundaravadivel, Elias Kougianos, Saraju P. Mohanty, and Madhavi Ganapathiraju
The Internet-of-Things (IoT) has taken over the business spectrum and its applications vary widely from agriculture,
and healthcare, to transportation etc. A hospital environment can be very stressful, especially for senior citizens and
children. With the ever-increasing world population, the conventional patient-doctor appointment has lost its
effectiveness. Hence smart healthcare becomes very important. Smart healthcare can be implemented at all levels,
starting from temperature monitoring for babies to monitoring vital signs in the elderly. The complexity and cost of
implementation varies based on the required precision of the individual devices, functionalities and sophistication of
the application for which they are used. Smart healthcare also falls under vertical areas such as VLSI, embedded
systems, big data, machine learning, cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence. This article discusses the importance,
requirements and applications of smart healthcare along with the current industry trends and products. It gives a deeper
insight about the different platforms across which more research can be pursued in this dynamic domain.
1. INTRODUCTION
Traditional healthcare is unable to accommodate everyone’s needs due to the tremendous increase in population.
Despite having excellent infrastructure, and cutting-edge technologies, medical services are not approachable or
affordable to everyone. One of the goals of smart healthcare is to help users by educating them about their medical
status and keeping them health-aware. Smart healthcare empowers users to self-manage some emergency situations
[1]. It provides an emphasis on improving the quality and experience of the user. Smart healthcare helps in utilizing
available resources to their maximum potential. It aids remote monitoring of patients and helps in reducing the cost
of the treatment for the user. It also helps medical practitioners to extend their services without any geographical
barriers. With an increasing trend towards smart cities, an effective smart healthcare system assures a healthy living
for its citizens.
Connected health in general refers to any digital healthcare solution that can operate remotely and is a collective term
for subsets such as telemedicine and mobile-health, but with an additional component of continuous monitoring of
health, emergency detection and alerting suitable individuals automatically. Connected health mainly focuses on the
mission to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare by enabling self-care and complementing it with remote-
care. It has its origin in the era of telemedicine, where the users are educated about their health and are given feedback
whenever required. While smart healthcare refers to solutions which can operate completely autonomously, connected
healthcare offers solutions for the users to receive feedback from clinicians. The most important classification, which
redefines the economy of the smart healthcare, is the end user market. Depending upon whether the healthcare network
is to be implemented for individuals or hospitals, the cost, power, and architecture varies widely.
Figure 1 shows the broad classification of the smart healthcare market, based on the services, medical devices,
technologies used, applications, system management and end users. Connectivity technologies used play a vital role
FIGURE 1. Classification of Smart Health Care.
Everything You Wanted to Know about Smart Healthcare
By Prabha Sundaravadivel, Elias Kougianos, Saraju P. Mohanty, and Madhavi Ganapathiraju
The Internet-of-Things (IoT) has taken over the business spectrum and its applications vary widely from agriculture,
and healthcare, to transportation etc. A hospital environment can be very stressful, especially for senior citizens and
children. With the ever-increasing world population, the conventional patient-doctor appointment has lost its
effectiveness. Hence smart healthcare becomes very important. Smart healthcare can be implemented at all levels,
starting from temperature monitoring for babies to monitoring vital signs in the elderly. The complexity and cost of
implementation varies based on the required precision of the individual devices, functionalities and sophistication of
the application for which they are used. Smart healthcare also falls under vertical areas such as VLSI, embedded
systems, big data, machine learning, cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence. This article discusses the importance,
requirements and applications of smart healthcare along with the current industry trends and products. It gives a deeper
insight about the different platforms across which more research can be pursued in this dynamic domain.
1. INTRODUCTION
Traditional healthcare is unable to accommodate everyone’s needs due to the tremendous increase in population.
Despite having excellent infrastructure, and cutting-edge technologies, medical services are not approachable or
affordable to everyone. One of the goals of smart healthcare is to help users by educating them about their medical
status and keeping them health-aware. Smart healthcare empowers users to self-manage some emergency situations
[1]. It provides an emphasis on improving the quality and experience of the user. Smart healthcare helps in utilizing
available resources to their maximum potential. It aids remote monitoring of patients and helps in reducing the cost
of the treatment for the user. It also helps medical practitioners to extend their services without any geographical
barriers. With an increasing trend towards smart cities, an effective smart healthcare system assures a healthy living
for its citizens.
Connected health in general refers to any digital healthcare solution that can operate remotely and is a collective term
for subsets such as telemedicine and mobile-health, but with an additional component of continuous monitoring of
health, emergency detection and alerting suitable individuals automatically. Connected health mainly focuses on the
mission to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare by enabling self-care and complementing it with remote-
care. It has its origin in the era of telemedicine, where the users are educated about their health and are given feedback
whenever required. While smart healthcare refers to solutions which can operate completely autonomously, connected
healthcare offers solutions for the users to receive feedback from clinicians. The most important classification, which
redefines the economy of the smart healthcare, is the end user market. Depending upon whether the healthcare network
is to be implemented for individuals or hospitals, the cost, power, and architecture varies widely.
Figure 1 shows the broad classification of the smart healthcare market, based on the services, medical devices,
technologies used, applications, system management and end users. Connectivity technologies used play a vital role
FIGURE 1. Classification of Smart Health Care.
2
in expanding the applications for which the healthcare system is designed. Efficient integration of small devices
through wireless technologies can help in implementing remote health monitoring through the Internet of Things (IoT)
[2]. If a personalized monitoring device such as a wrist band is used, a Bluetooth module, 6LowPAN or RFID can be
used to connect the device to the internet. But in a hospital scenario where a healthcare network is maintained, Wi-Fi
and ground cables are required to maintain constant internet connectivity and support heavy data traffic. The medical
devices used to implement the smart healthcare can be classified into on-body sensors and stationary medical devices.
On-body sensors are usually bio-sensors which are attached to the human body for physiological monitoring. These
sensors can be further classified into in-vitro and in-vivo sensors. In-vitro sensors are attached externally to the human
body which helps in reducing the involvement of lab or hospital facilities in healthcare. In-vivo sensors are implantable
devices which are placed inside the body after fulfilling the regulations and standards on sterilization.
2. SMART HEALTHCARE ARCHITECTURES: REQUIREMENTS, COMPONENTS AND
CHARACTERISTICS
Requirements of smart healthcare can be
broadly classified into functional
requirements and non-functional
requirements, as shown in Figure 2.
Functional requirements address specific
requirements of a smart healthcare
architecture. For example, if a
temperature monitoring system is
deployed, based on the application it is
used for, the range of operation of the
thermistor/thermometer, data collection
mechanism, and frequency of operation
might vary. Hence functional
requirements are specific to each
component used in that healthcare system
based on their application.
On the other hand, non-functional requirements are not very specific. Nonfunctional requirements refer to attributes
based on which the quality of the healthcare system can be determined. On a broader perspective, non-functional
requirements of smart healthcare can be
classified into performance requirements
and ethical requirements. Due to the large
number of verticals involved in designing a
complete smart healthcare system,
performance requirements can be further
classified into software and hardware
requirements. Essential requirements for
an efficient smart healthcare system are
low power, small form factor, system
reliability, quality of service, enriched user
experience, higher efficiency, ability to
interoperate across different platforms,
ease of deployment, popularity of the smart
healthcare system to offer continuous
support, scalability of the system to
upgrade to newer versions and
technologies, and ample connectivity since
the very prime motive of designing a smart
healthcare is to ensure medical service
promptly. In advanced applications, along with these requirements, the system also needs to have ambient intelligence
to improve the quality of service.
FIGURE 2. Requirements in Smart Health Care.
FIGURE 3. Different Technologies used to Deploy Smart Healthcare.
in expanding the applications for which the healthcare system is designed. Efficient integration of small devices
through wireless technologies can help in implementing remote health monitoring through the Internet of Things (IoT)
[2]. If a personalized monitoring device such as a wrist band is used, a Bluetooth module, 6LowPAN or RFID can be
used to connect the device to the internet. But in a hospital scenario where a healthcare network is maintained, Wi-Fi
and ground cables are required to maintain constant internet connectivity and support heavy data traffic. The medical
devices used to implement the smart healthcare can be classified into on-body sensors and stationary medical devices.
On-body sensors are usually bio-sensors which are attached to the human body for physiological monitoring. These
sensors can be further classified into in-vitro and in-vivo sensors. In-vitro sensors are attached externally to the human
body which helps in reducing the involvement of lab or hospital facilities in healthcare. In-vivo sensors are implantable
devices which are placed inside the body after fulfilling the regulations and standards on sterilization.
2. SMART HEALTHCARE ARCHITECTURES: REQUIREMENTS, COMPONENTS AND
CHARACTERISTICS
Requirements of smart healthcare can be
broadly classified into functional
requirements and non-functional
requirements, as shown in Figure 2.
Functional requirements address specific
requirements of a smart healthcare
architecture. For example, if a
temperature monitoring system is
deployed, based on the application it is
used for, the range of operation of the
thermistor/thermometer, data collection
mechanism, and frequency of operation
might vary. Hence functional
requirements are specific to each
component used in that healthcare system
based on their application.
On the other hand, non-functional requirements are not very specific. Nonfunctional requirements refer to attributes
based on which the quality of the healthcare system can be determined. On a broader perspective, non-functional
requirements of smart healthcare can be
classified into performance requirements
and ethical requirements. Due to the large
number of verticals involved in designing a
complete smart healthcare system,
performance requirements can be further
classified into software and hardware
requirements. Essential requirements for
an efficient smart healthcare system are
low power, small form factor, system
reliability, quality of service, enriched user
experience, higher efficiency, ability to
interoperate across different platforms,
ease of deployment, popularity of the smart
healthcare system to offer continuous
support, scalability of the system to
upgrade to newer versions and
technologies, and ample connectivity since
the very prime motive of designing a smart
healthcare is to ensure medical service
promptly. In advanced applications, along with these requirements, the system also needs to have ambient intelligence
to improve the quality of service.
FIGURE 2. Requirements in Smart Health Care.
FIGURE 3. Different Technologies used to Deploy Smart Healthcare.
3
Perspectives of smart heath care widely vary amongst researchers and industries, based on the chosen goal to be
achieved. Components of smart healthcare system can be classified based on the sensors or actuators, computing
devices, data storage elements and networking components. A sensor is an analytical device which combines with a
biological element that creates a recognition of events [3]. Sensors or actuators vary based on the monitoring systems.
Temperature sensors, ECG, blood pressure, blood glucose, EMG, heart rate, SpO2, gyroscope, motion sensors, and
accelerometers, are the common sensors used in smart healthcare. Computing devices used in the present era range
from smart phones, tablets, and PDAs to complex and advanced devices such as super computers and servers.
Memories play a very important role in smart healthcare since storing the information is the most important function
of these systems. Data storage components in the smart heath care network cover a broader spectrum starting from
embedded memory on the sensing devices to big servers that are used to handle big data analytics. Networking
components vary from link sensors to routers and base stations. Based on the severity of the problem addressed, the
sophistication of the components varies. Wireless technologies are the backbone of the smart healthcare network.
Different wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 6LoWPAN, RFID etc., as shown in Figure 3, play a vital
role in exchanging the information among different physical elements that are configured to form the healthcare
network.
The most important characteristics required for smart healthcare system are shown in Figure 4. Characteristics of
smart healthcare can be broadly classified based on three categories: App-oriented, Things-oriented and Semantics-
oriented. App-oriented architectures need to ensure reliable transmission between the applications in smart phones
and the sensors, establish a personalized network between the sensors and the user’s computing device and secure the
information. Things-oriented architectures need to be adaptive based on the application, real time monitoring, on-time
delivery, higher sensitivity, maintain higher efficiency at lower power dissipation, and embark on intelligent
processing. Semantic-oriented systems need to be able to develop behavioral patterns based on the previously acquired
information, process natural language processing techniques to enrich user experience and have ubiquitous computing
capabilities [4], [5].
Adding to this list, other significant characteristics include heterogeneous computing, spontaneous interaction across
all the elements in the network, location-aware computing, dynamic networks which can accommodate a large number
of devices as required, and resource constrained computing with higher efficiency.
3. SMART HEALTHCARE NETWORKS: CONFIGURATION, ORGANIZATION AND FRAMEWORK
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) were the initial research effort for the IoT. Using WSNs in different applications
led to efficient architectures for healthcare applications [6]. There are many dimensions to the architectures and
platforms used to deploy smart healthcare. Research in healthcare networks, can be categorized into three major
research dimensions: Configuration,
Organization and Framework. Healthcare
configuration refers to the assembly of
different physical elements in appropriate
applications which can be used to address key
issues. By placing the right sensors/actuators
in environments, heterogeneous computing
grids can be configured to use such
configurations in seamless healthcare
computing environments [7]. On the other
hand, the organization groups the
specifications of the healthcare physical
elements along with the hierarchy of the
design. Smart healthcare architectures need to
be interoperable across different technologies.
For example, the sensors used in the body
would communicate amongst each other
through a personal area network or body area network. This information would be transferred to a smart phone through
a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi technology and further will be processed across the network through IPV6 [8]. Thus, organization
helps in discussing the working principles and techniques involved in the network architectures. Research on exploring
FIGURE 4. Characteristics of Smart Healthcare.
Perspectives of smart heath care widely vary amongst researchers and industries, based on the chosen goal to be
achieved. Components of smart healthcare system can be classified based on the sensors or actuators, computing
devices, data storage elements and networking components. A sensor is an analytical device which combines with a
biological element that creates a recognition of events [3]. Sensors or actuators vary based on the monitoring systems.
Temperature sensors, ECG, blood pressure, blood glucose, EMG, heart rate, SpO2, gyroscope, motion sensors, and
accelerometers, are the common sensors used in smart healthcare. Computing devices used in the present era range
from smart phones, tablets, and PDAs to complex and advanced devices such as super computers and servers.
Memories play a very important role in smart healthcare since storing the information is the most important function
of these systems. Data storage components in the smart heath care network cover a broader spectrum starting from
embedded memory on the sensing devices to big servers that are used to handle big data analytics. Networking
components vary from link sensors to routers and base stations. Based on the severity of the problem addressed, the
sophistication of the components varies. Wireless technologies are the backbone of the smart healthcare network.
Different wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 6LoWPAN, RFID etc., as shown in Figure 3, play a vital
role in exchanging the information among different physical elements that are configured to form the healthcare
network.
The most important characteristics required for smart healthcare system are shown in Figure 4. Characteristics of
smart healthcare can be broadly classified based on three categories: App-oriented, Things-oriented and Semantics-
oriented. App-oriented architectures need to ensure reliable transmission between the applications in smart phones
and the sensors, establish a personalized network between the sensors and the user’s computing device and secure the
information. Things-oriented architectures need to be adaptive based on the application, real time monitoring, on-time
delivery, higher sensitivity, maintain higher efficiency at lower power dissipation, and embark on intelligent
processing. Semantic-oriented systems need to be able to develop behavioral patterns based on the previously acquired
information, process natural language processing techniques to enrich user experience and have ubiquitous computing
capabilities [4], [5].
Adding to this list, other significant characteristics include heterogeneous computing, spontaneous interaction across
all the elements in the network, location-aware computing, dynamic networks which can accommodate a large number
of devices as required, and resource constrained computing with higher efficiency.
3. SMART HEALTHCARE NETWORKS: CONFIGURATION, ORGANIZATION AND FRAMEWORK
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) were the initial research effort for the IoT. Using WSNs in different applications
led to efficient architectures for healthcare applications [6]. There are many dimensions to the architectures and
platforms used to deploy smart healthcare. Research in healthcare networks, can be categorized into three major
research dimensions: Configuration,
Organization and Framework. Healthcare
configuration refers to the assembly of
different physical elements in appropriate
applications which can be used to address key
issues. By placing the right sensors/actuators
in environments, heterogeneous computing
grids can be configured to use such
configurations in seamless healthcare
computing environments [7]. On the other
hand, the organization groups the
specifications of the healthcare physical
elements along with the hierarchy of the
design. Smart healthcare architectures need to
be interoperable across different technologies.
For example, the sensors used in the body
would communicate amongst each other
through a personal area network or body area network. This information would be transferred to a smart phone through
a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi technology and further will be processed across the network through IPV6 [8]. Thus, organization
helps in discussing the working principles and techniques involved in the network architectures. Research on exploring
FIGURE 4. Characteristics of Smart Healthcare.
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