From the dictionary – “When something revolutionizes an activity, it causes great changes in the way that it is done” – a straightforward definition, there.
Internet of Things (IoT) devices are used in many settings to improve and, in some cases, enable for the first time, the collection and transport of small amounts of data that gives insights into the operation and behavior of many physical systems. These small amounts of data are in no way unimportant because they are small, as they are the key indications of how an underlying system is performing. IoT devices are usually thought of as gathering data from equipment, machinery, or the environment, enabling monitoring, automation, and control. And, of course, there is also a considerable utilization in agriculture, enabling the monitoring of conditions to optimize crop and livestock production, ensuring such conditions as temperature, irrigation, and feed are optimal. There are also growing applications in healthcare, as the human body and the environmental conditions the human body operates in have very high importance when it comes to patient care.
I’m going to concentrate on the United Kingdom because I live here and that’s where I’m seeing this field develop, but this is just an example of a global trend towards the use of IoT devices in healthcare that are revolutionizing patient care.
In the UK, our new Government has issued a number of statements on how they intend to modernize the National Health Service (NHS). One in particular mentions “The revolution taking place in data and life sciences has the potential to transform our nation’s healthcare”. This is targeted at a number of reforms in the NHS, including the remote collection of data on a person’s state of health that would normally only be collected in the doctor’s office or at a healthcare facility. This could be as simple as measuring blood pressure, body temperature, blood oxygenation levels, and other key health state indicators—the same type of data collected by a modern smartwatch. More complicated scenarios for monitoring patients include the “virtual ward” (also known as hospital at home) that allow patients to get the care they need at home, safely and conveniently, rather than in the hospital.
If you consider that this is mostly about the collection of remote monitoring data, then it sounds very much like the methods used to remotely monitor anything via IoT, but with different sensors. So, the “revolution” is just about what data is collected, and how it’s collected and used. I say “just” but that’s not giving enough importance to the change and its impact. After all, Henry Ford was “just” manufacturing automobiles. Other automobile manufacturers were around at the time too, and “all” Mr. Ford did was to build cars on a production line, with small repeatable manufacturing tasks, using standard parts, taking place along the line. But the effect of that was enormous.
Changing how healthcare data is collected and used will have a massive and revolutionizing impact on patient care in many ways. Firstly, data collection is more convenient for the patient, meaning that missed appointments have far less impact and the data is more likely to be available to clinicians. Data can be collected more often and in larger quantities. This gives rise to better trend analysis and being able to predict—no doubt with the help of AI tools—health issues sooner, leading to improved outcomes for patients. Care must absolutely be taken in managing this data, as it originates from real people’s health conditions. In the UK there is the “Value Sharing Framework for NHS data partnership” a set of guiding principles to help NHS organizations negotiate fair terms for NHS data partnerships that allow NHS organizations to collaborate with partners from academia or industry to use health and care data for research, development, and innovation. The US has a similar framework under HIPAA.
That’s just where it starts. When you have population-level data lakes, population-level analysis can be performed, giving real data to scientifically influence national health policies. There will, of course, be many details and unforeseen consequences to work through, but the potential to improve the lives of our fellow humans, wherever they are located, is so vast that it really does have the potential to revolutionize patient care.