Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
– critical subgroup of well-established Internet of Things (IoT) technology.
IoMT are considered to be medical devices with computer networks connectivity features. Such medical devices bring significant potential for improved healthcare system and patient care.
The IoMT have been found in current as well as in developing connected medical technologies. The following is an overview of such applications with essential examples:
- wearable biosensors (smart lenses, pulse oximeters, glucometers, blood pressure, Holters, etc.)
- ingestible biosensors (“smart pill” for pH, temperature, pressure, gases, bacteria engineered, medication monitoring, etc. )
- remote patient monitoring (patients with chronic conditions ie. heart activity and glucose levels automated alerts)
- telemedicine (telesurgery, teletrauma care, telenursing, telerehabilitation, telecardiology, telepharmacy, etc.)
- emergency services (digital stethoscopes, connected inhaler, pre-hospital ECG, drones for blood delivery, etc.)
- smart hospitals (ICU software and connected hospital beds for patient vital signs, connected equipment, wireless EHR system, etc.)
- electronics health records (connected system to maintain wire/less biosensor patient data)
- connected home healthcare (remote telehealth visits, pregnancy monitoring, virtual home assistants, emergency response systems, smart implants, etc.)
Understanding aforementioned application domains, it is important to emphasize that IoMT medical devices are regulated same as the general medical devices. That would require design, development, pre-clinical and clinical validation testing implementation to the extent of device risk classification.
Further, due to connectivity features and cloud based systems risks, patient health data security is critical challenge with this kind of equipment. Therefore, manufacturers would be required to implement additional network connectivity requirements, as prescribed by applicable regulation and standards.
IoMT are the present and will be strongly developing in the future, providing the whole infrastructure set-up for improving efficiency of health ecosystem and state-of-the-art patient care.