IoT or Internet of Things is used for connected devices. Here, connected world is used for connection with The Internet. In past few years, we have seen rapid growth in devices which are connected to The Internet to share data and provide remote access. These devices are growing in almost every kind of industry including Education, consumer electronics and Healthcare. But Healthcare industry didn’t meet the expected growth. Now healthcare consulting firm Prescient has predicted the faster adoption of IoT this year.
The company also claimed that IoT will be helpful for diseases for which proactive monitoring and data management are used. With the help of IoT, monitoring and data management will be much easier. We have already seen few devices for similar kind of monitoring.
As of now, IoT is limited to monitoring in healthcare. But it will soon change with better and more complex use of IoT in healthcare. Forbes also published a similar kind of report last year and claimed that IoT market in healthcare will be a $117 billion market.
Prescient also pointed that most of the companies taking the interest in IoT are looking for a global movement. But few small local scale firms have also started taking advantage of IoT. The US, UK and China are largest players in the local segment. While 64% companies are thinking about global movement. GSK and Qualcomm are also in talked to create a joint venture to enable pharma company GSK to expand its MedTech (Medical company that uses information technology) segment.
We already know Apple, Google. IBM and few other tech companies are working on IoT products for healthcare, healthcare companies are also very interested and looking to adopt IoT. Healthcare companies have a major share in targeting IoT in healthcare while Tech companies fall behind it.
Prescient predicts that more pharma companies will look for MedTech partnership to boost the growth of IoT in healthcare. More hospitals will also adopt IoT services to manage staff efficiently and reduce overhead.
Why the adoption was not so good in previous years
Prescient also pointed why the adoption was not so good in previous years. The cost was the main factor. It is not affordable to use these technologies. IoT will not come in trend in healthcare unless it has proven to be cost-effective. Most of the people cannot afford these devices. Security of data was another minor factor affecting the adoption. patients are also not very comfortable in wearing multiple sensors and be restricted to log their daily readings and send it to physicians.
These devices also come with low battery back and need daily charging. People are already unhappy with the frequent charging of smartphones, wearable IoT will be another overhead to charge.
Graphs and data source: Prescient | Whitepaper
