IoT assignment: Use of Advanced Internet of Things Devices in Health Care
Question
Task: Write a detailed report on IoT assignment on the topic “Advanced IoT devices in health care sector”.
Answer
Introduction: The research was conducted on the topic as Advanced IoT Devices for Healthcare Sector. Internet of Things (IoT) is the emerging technology and is being extensively researched. This is because of a large number of opportunities and potential that is associated with the IoT technologies. The use of the technology is being done in several sectors. Healthcare is the sector that was focused upon the research work (Prabhakaran & Balamurugan, 2019).
The research was conducted to understand the applications and use of some of the advanced IoT devices and also explored the various issues and challenges that are associated in the process.
Results & Findings: The research could be successfully completed in the estimated time frame and within the budget that was allocated to carry out the research activities. There are various outcomes that have been obtained as the results of the research work.
The research provided the use and application of the IoT technologies and devices for numerous stakeholders. The primary area of focus was the patients and the determination of the IoT devices for the patients could be done (Mavrogiorgou et al., 2019). One of the most significant applications of IoT for the patients and end-users is the wearable devices. There are numerous wearable devices, such as wearable bands and Smartwatches that have been developed. These bands and gadgets can be worn by the patients and the users to keep a track of their health signs, such as blood pressure, heart rate, pulse rate, etc. It is useful device as it provides the ability to self-monitor the health conditions. The IoT-based innovation is now being used by the people all across the globe. It could be determined that these wearable devices are causing positive impacts on the people. The easy tracking of the steps and the movements in a day enable the users to move around resulting in better health. The issues, such as obesity or muscular pains can be resolved with such movements. The IoT-based devices are also being used by the patients to be aware of their irregular health signs. The devices generate alerts that are assisting in the timely diagnosis (Alamri, 2018).
It could also be determined that the IoT devices are actively being used in the more severe health conditions. For example, the people suffering from cardiovascular diseases are using the IoT devices to monitor the heart rate and related signs. There are various sensors that are used in the IoT systems and these assist the patients and the medical professionals to effectively manage the health conditions. The assistive devices are being developed using the IoT devices. These assistive devices are of great importance for the elderly and the differently abled people. For example, people with Dementia can use the IoT-based assistive devices to help them in remembering the path to their respective homes while they go out for a walk. The family members are also assured of the patient safety. This leads to the boosting up of the morale of the patient as well (Inacio et al., 2020).
IoT devices are also being used in the hospitals and medical professionals for other purposes. There are different medical tools and equipment used in the hospitals. The installation of the IoT devices and sensors is done in such equipment for proper tracking. For example, the wheelchairs or oxygen pumps are frequently taken from one area of the hospital to the other as per the requirement. The use of IoT sensors can assist the medical staff to easily track the devices and utilize the same as per the need. The use of IoT-based health monitoring tools is assisting the medical professionals. There are certain health conditions that do not require the patients to repeatedly visit the hospital and medical centers. The medical professionals are obtaining the information from such tools and applications to advice the patients on the further medical steps and decisions.
The research provided the mechanism to understand the various benefits and applications of the IoT devices in the healthcare sector (Harsh, 2017). However, the exploration was also done to determine some of the challenges and issues that may be seen. The security and privacy concerns are identified as one of the primary issues. It could be determined that the IoT applications and devices are usually used with the other technologies, such as Big Data, Cloud Computing, and others. Also, the IoT devices and systems that are used in the healthcare sector or any other industrial sector are composed of numerous components and elements. There are varied properties associated with these components and this leads to the emergence of numerous security vulnerabilities. Due to the presence of several security vulnerabilities, it becomes difficult to control the security and privacy attacks.
The private health information of the patients is extremely confidential and critical in nature. The use of IoT in the health sector offers a wide range of benefits; however, the exposure of the private health information of the patients can result in major obligations for the hospital or medical firms (Ahmed et al., 2018).
The research provided the ability to determine some of the control techniques and countermeasures that could be adopted so that the security and privacy concerns were avoided and mitigated. The use of lightweight Cryptography and advanced network security tools are determined as some of the techniques.
There are some other issues that are also determined with the use and implementation of IoT in health sector. The high costs of implementation and the technical compatibility and configuration issues are also witnessed.
Conclusion
The research study on the advanced IoT devices for healthcare sector provided the understanding of the various applications of IoT in the sector. The research could be completed in time and also provided the ability to determine the challenges associated with IoT in healthcare. The most prominent out of all are the security issues and privacy concerns. There are some of the techniques and mechanisms that can be adopted so that these issues are prevented and avoided. The use of network security controls and Cryptography shall be done so that the issues can be properly handled.
Lessons Learned
- The research projects comprise of various steps and activities. It is possible that some of these activities run in parallel and may overlap each other. It is, therefore, essential that the research plans and strategies are defined in advance. This will make sure that the suitable plans are developed and implemented so that the effective research can be conducted.
- It could be determined that communication plays a very important role in the research process and activities. The lack of communication during the research projects leads to massive gaps. I could learn that there must be communication management plan prepared in advance so that the project communications are streamlined. The presence of such communication plans will make sure that all the resources engaged in the research work are on the same page. The resolution of the issues will also be timely done with these plans in place.
- There are details and information that could be learnt about the selected research topic, that is, IoT devices in healthcare. IoT is being used in the healthcare sector and a number of IoT devices are in use. Some of these include the wearable devices, sensor devices, and many others (Park et al., 2018). It could be learnt that IoT can have multiple applications in the healthcare sector.
- The knowledge and understanding on the security and privacy issues around IoT could also be acquired. It could be learnt that there are a number of security and privacy attacks that may occur which can violate the information properties associated with the IoT devices. Therefore, it must be made sure that the IoT applications are kept protected and there is enhancement of security done at all times. The security and privacy tools that shall be used shall focus on the promotion of network security and information security. The use of the lightweight cryptography protocols and frameworks can also be used (Sharma, 2019).
- The learnings around risk management could also be acquired. There were several risks and issues that emerged during the research work. The resolution of these issues could be done with the implementation of the defined risk management guidelines. I could learn that the risks shall be effectively managed and there shall be plans and strategies prepared in advance to deal with the risks.
Further Improvements
There are certain improvements that can be made in the future. There are a few limitations and gaps in the research work. The data that was used for the purpose of the research was gathered from a few hospitals and medical centres. There is broad application of IoT that is possible and the future research work shall focus on the increased amount of data for better analysis. From the security and privacy point of view, there is a lot of buzz around Blockchain. The use of the Blockchain technology shall be done with the IoT networks and systems to promote security and privacy. This is another area that shall be research upon in the future.
References
Ahmed, Shahina Begum, & Jean-Baptiste Bastel. (2018). Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for healthcare?: 4th International Conference, HealthyIoT 2017, Angers, France, October 24-25, 2017, Proceedings. Springer.
Alamri, A. (2018). Ontology Middleware for Integration of IoT Healthcare Information Systems in EHR Systems. Computers, 7(4), 51. https://doi.org/10.3390/computers7040051
Harsh, K. (2017). IOT Based Calorie Calculator For Healthcare System. International Journal Of Engineering And Computer Science. https://doi.org/10.18535/ijecs/v6i5.10
Inacio, P. R. M., Duarte, A., Paulo Fazendeiro, & Nuno Pombo. (2020). 5th EAI International Conference on IoT Technologies for HealthCare. Springer.
Mavrogiorgou, A., Kiourtis, A., Perakis, K., Pitsios, S., & Kyriazis, D. (2019). IoT in Healthcare: Achieving Interoperability of High-Quality Data Acquired by IoT Medical Devices. Sensors, 19(9), 1978. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19091978
Park, A., Chang, H., & Lee, K. J. (2018). How to Sustain Smart Connected Hospital Services: An Experience from a Pilot Project on IoT-Based Healthcare Services. Healthcare Informatics Research, 24(4), 387. https://doi.org/10.4258/hir.2018.24.4.387
Prabhakaran, & Balamurugan, V. M. (2019). IOT TECHNOLOGIES FOR HEALTHCARE?: principles and applications. Scholars’ Press.
Sharma, S. R. (2019). Internet of Things IoT: IoT in Healthcare. International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development, Volume-3(Issue-4), 980–982. https://doi.org/10.31142/ijtsrd23971
