As soon as science and technology led the world into a new era of relative welfare for everyone, better health and longer lives of people started creating new challenges for those operating within the healthcare industry. When chronic diseases start getting cured and you are able to easily live through your 100th birthday, healthcare providers must also adapt their ways of monitoring the health of their patients so that they are not overwhelmed with the amount of the century-old data.
Over the past decade, Artificial Intelligence was being used as the major bridge between the healthcare IT of today and the healthcare IT of the future, but as is with the technological trends, new things kept popping up and today, we have a totally different picture of healthcare IT in front of us.
One of the possible solutions to these newly posed problems has been the implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare. This whole phenomenon has also been named as the Internet of Medical Things.
Internet of Things & Healthcare
The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to some exciting advancements in the 21st century. Although IoT has been associated with most industrial and corporate applications, it has a wide application in the field of healthcare and has revolutionized the medical sector.
Internet of Things has found its application in every single aspect of healthcare including remote monitoring, personal healthcare, smart sensors, medical device integration, robotics, smart pills, and even surgical operations. The development of smart fitness devices such as the Fitbit is also a part of this scheme and leads to bigger things in the future.
Applications of Telehealth
As Healthcare IT progresses even further in the domains of virtual treatment and patient engagement, telehealth is expected to penetrate more into some specific medical specialties including chronic disease monitoring and management, home health, physical and occupational therapy, consumer and professional education, disaster management, and even dentistry.
Here are the four key domains of applications Telehealth encompasses:
Live Video Interactions
A two-way video interaction between both the parties (the patients and the providers).
Physician Recorded Sessions
Transmission of already recorded sessions by physicians to the patients, eliminating the need for live interaction.
Remote Patient Monitoring
Personal health data and medical information are collected from patients in one location and are afterwards sent to the provider in a different location for use in treatment and healthcare-related support. The provider can track healthcare data for a patient once released to home or a care facility, which helps reduce readmission rates.
Mobile EMR Software
The monitoring and maintenance of Electronic Medical Records through a handheld device (either an iPad or a smartphone). Mobile EMR Software allows physicians to make important decisions remotely or while on the go.
