When the discussion about the Internet of Things (IoT) turns to healthcare, the conversation is often about mobile medical applications or wearable devices to capture and measure health data such as blood pressure, body temperature, etc. While it’s understandable why these devices, technologies and e-textiles have captured the attention of healthcare- focused companies, there is still so much greater potential in healthcare and IoT. Recognizing the ever-present concern with HIPAA and maintaining privacy of patients and their records, there’s still a tremendous upside in applying IoT in areas like remote monitoring and patient care, as well as sensing, capturing and reporting data, and providing real-time alerts with IoT devices. It can transform the healthcare industry in so many ways.

One critical way to better leverage the value of IoT in healthcare can be explained in three words: track and trace. Healthcare enterprises – from hospitals to pharmaceutical manufacturers, resellers and dispensers – in one way or the other face challenges related to the shipment and delivery of drugs and medications. Effective Nov. 2017, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) will require all drug manufacturers, re-packagers, wholesale distributors and even third-party logistics providers to provide serialization and lot-level tracing information of designated products in the US pharmaceutical supply chain. These companies will also need to establish systems for verifying and handling suspect or illegitimate products, too. And in the European Union, those who manufacture, sell or dispense medications have until February 2019 to comply with the serialization, compliance reporting and verification tracking guidelines of the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD). So, it’s clear that all stand to benefit from the automation and analytics that IoT can bring to their operations. Not only can deploying IoT across the enterprise at a workflow level help address healthcare’s cost, waste and redundancy challenges, but it will also deliver actionable analytics to help streamline communication and collaboration.

In addition to the need for tracking and tracing drugs and medications, it might also be important to track the location and even environmental conditions of these assets. And if an IoT solution can provide data reporting and real-time alerts, as both a record-keeping mechanism for shipments, and to deliver actionable feedback if cargo conditions deviate from preset thresholds, then it’s a real home run.

Another key way IoT can transform healthcare can be seen in the need for hospitals to track critical assets and manage staff within their own facility. There is a tremendous hit to the bottom line of hospitals from lost, stolen or under-utilized equipment and assets. When you associate a hospital’s expenses that can be tied to lost or stolen assets from pillows, towels and surgical scrubs to IV poles and wheelchairs, the opportunity for an IoT-driven strategy and solution becomes clear. This type of IoT solution could also have an application to enable hospitals to better manage staff workflow, as well.

Lastly, no discourse on IoT and healthcare is complete without mention of security. As healthcare enterprises explore IoT, there are some things to consider. Increased machine-to-machine dialogue and data sharing means increased potential for vulnerabilities around data security. Recently reported DDoS attacks only serve to underscore the need for appropriate security measures around data-rich environments where multiple systems and servers intersect. Where machines and devices are capturing and sharing critical data – especially data that has regulatory compliance implications like protected health information (PHI) – having the right safeguards in place around machine and device interoperability will be as critical to the IoT as it has been for the web.

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In this channel across our series, we’ll take a closer look at how “IoT Security” needs to take shape. As healthcare throws its arms around IoT devices, it will need to give equal and careful attention to the connected ecosystem where those devices will reside and share. 

About the Author:

Thomas P. Villa, director, is head of enterprise product management & business development, Verizon Wireless.