Health Internet of Things . HIoT

More pain than gain,  according to expert Internet of Thingsologists.

This term is being applied to many already existing health information technology services.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. Central to this thesis is connectivity...via wired or wireless means.

Adapting and integrating these advances will bring new disruptive technology to all industries including health care.

There are two choices, sit idly by and continue using old methods to work in an increasingly hostile environment of government regulations, new forms of reimbursements (decreasing), and increasing patient volume, to mention a few.
A thing, in the Internet of Things, can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low -- or any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an IP address and provided with the ability to transfer data over a network. 

IoT has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), microservices and the internet. The convergence has helped tear down the silo walls between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT), allowing unstructured machine-generated data to be analyzed for insights that will drive improvements.

Taken together all of the functions become the IoT. It is a new language. In some ways it parallels the development of electronic health records, but much more pervasive. EHRs collect data and make it available from silos to other silos. They also provide data for analytics. With EHR the Health Information Exchange is attempting to tear down silos for EHR.  The results have been mediocre at best.  Although almost all states have health information exchanges, they participation rate is low.  Demonstration of ROI is still meager. IoT will undoubtedly follow a similar path.

Applications in the near future.

In Office Remote monitoring of ICU data in real time, ie, Temp, pO2, P, BP, EKG (alarm monitoring)

Real time reporting of insurance processing.

Currently in use:

Patient portal  for appointment scheduling, laboratory, messaging, billing information and demographics, as well as CCR.

One only has to sit down and think about the possibilities.

The pain will originate from change and cost. Resistance will occur from ROI and breaking old work flows.