IoT trends in the healthcare sector include wearables, smart hospitals, and use of mobile apps.
Wearables
- An increasing interest in self-monitoring is a major driver in the growth of healthcare wearable technologies.
- It is estimated that by the end of 2019 more than 300 million people will use at least one healthcare wearable.
- Major technology companies, such as Apple and Android, are incorporating healthcare monitors in their wearable devices.
- Healthcare wearables can monitor chronic medical conditions, blood pressure, sleep patterns, calorie intake, and more. In addition, wearables can reduce the time needed to gather data for doctors and caregivers.
Smart Hospitals
- Dissatisfaction with current hospitals, inefficiency, and difficult to manage organization are driving the transformation of hospitals to become smart hospitals.
- Expanding the use of connected devices is helping hospitals to become more efficient, reduce costs, and quickly recognize and diagnose medical conditions.
- Smart technologies adopted by hospitals include centralized databases, blockchain and smart contracts, admissions and queue management, remote patient monitoring, and more.
- The global smart hopsital market is expected to reach $57.76 billion by 2023. The growth is expected to be facilitated by government initiatives including quality outcome initiatives.
Mobile Apps
- Like wearables, the growth and adoption of mobile healthcare apps is driven by a desire to self-monitor.
- There were over 42 startups in 2015 developing over 114 healthcare apps. These apps included medication management, fitness, pregnancy monitoring, mobile health, and more.
- By 2019, there were over 97,000 healthcare apps available for download. In addition, over 25% of U.S. doctors are using at least one mobile app. In 2018, over 38 million people used a mhealth app to participate in a televisit with a healthcare provider.