The impact of the Internet of Things in the health environment: a challenge that involves all actors

IoT: Evolution from eHealth to Digital Health?

The Internet of Things can be defined as a “global infrastructure for the information society, that allows the provision of advanced services through the interconnection of physical and virtual objects (things), based on the present information and communication technologies, interoperable and in constant evolution” [1]. In other words, the IoT allows us to hiperconnect devices together, thus generating relevant information in order to offer services. Some examples of its application can be:

• Proactive monitoring of dependent people through the sensing of vital signs and the generation of alerts in certain situations.
• Streamlining in emergency procedures among different actors, managing data such as the individual’s geolocation, their medical record and the specific needs of the emergency itself.
• Processing of health data for a better self-management of the patient’s condition, through the compilation of relevant data, and an intelligent processing for prediction or pattern mining.
• Automated management of the health stock by means of sensors and actuators able to generate new orders taking into account the necessary material.

In the health and social welfare sector the Internet of Things allows us to integrate data collected by multiple sensors, thus providing support to the user itself, to the health professional, to the carer or to the service provider. This way we can design and implement services that provide information of higher value whenever it may be necessary and with capacity to be compared to historic or demographic situations easily.

Of course it will all depend on the citizens’ will to share certain data, because they are the actual key actors. The data generated by them will provide with intelligence the advanced systems in which their data will be implemented.

Challenges in the implementation of the IoT in health

Bearing in mind that the key points are the integration of data from multiple sources and their sharing, the two fundamental challenges are the interoperability (technological and semantical) and the security and privacy of data. Some of the mentioned barriers in the implementation of projects are linked to the lack of information by the regulation agencies when loading data to the “cloud”, interoperability guides and financing and return frames, among others. However, there are success cases that can be seen as a reference such as the Catalan health model, which was mentioned in the meetings.

The security and privacy, as well as the subsequent data sharing were treated transversally during some of the sessions, in which the high level of security required by health data was identified as a differentiating element. Nevertheless, the sharing of sensitive data is still a common worry. Another important element was the importance not only to generate reliable data but to generate confidence among users. In health the users’ role is crucial; they must be able to decide which level of data (aggregated or individual values) they want to share with the service in order to improve the experience received.

The challenge of the use of health standards in the Internet of Things was also assessed in an experience that presented the integration of data from hospital systems through IoT, in which the system was able to integrate the different signs and to generate intelligent alerts combining multiple vital parameters. [2]

Conclusions of the congress

The general feeling about the experiences presented during the congress is that all that we knew so far and that has been treated under the umbrella of eHealth and mHealth, fits perfectly (or it is perfectly integrated) in the new paradigm of the Internet of Things. Thanks to the interconnectivity of multiple sensors, we are offered advanced health services with a data integration level much higher and a proactivity that can bring the improvement of service provision. However, we must take into account that the implementation of projects associated with the IoT will require a higher participation and interaction among professionals, centres and technological providers in order to define an agreed framework of security.

[1] http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/recommendations/rec.aspx?rec=y.2060

[2] https://www.openice.info/