Internet of Things and its

Application in Healthcare

Prepared By:
Mudassir Ayub
 Human Activity Detection using wearable
Internet of Things (IOTs) and Its Application in
Healthcare
Abstract:
The technological advancement has revolutionized
healthcare sector. The use of smart medical devices
based on Internet of Things (IoT) networking system
is the future of medical science. These devices
measure the human activity to diagnose a patient for
a specific chronic disease. This data is continuously
fed to a wireless transmitter which shows it on the
user’s display. The recent developments in chronic
disease smart devices include Glucose Level
Monitoring, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Heart Rate
Monitoring, Body Temperature Monitoring and
Medication Management. However, there are some
data security and standardization issues which are
hindering the pace of progress in this sector.
Index Terms: Internet of Things, Smart Medical
Device, Healthcare, Data Security, Human Activity
Detection
Background
In the past times, the detection and diagnosis of
chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular, high
blood pressure etc., was very difficult and lengthy
process. In most of the cases, the disease would get
detected at final or crucial stages. Therefore, it took
millions of lives due to late detection of chronic
diseases around the globe. Luckily, if the disease was
diagnosed earlier, it was a difficult task to get regular
medical inspection and medication. Because a
chronic disease requires constant monitoring and
medication. The patient would check regularly to
find out the stage of the disease because the
medication is not constant in chronic disease. It
keeps on changing at every stage according to the
condition of the patient. Therefore, it was a very
tiresome process for both the patients and doctors.
Furthermore, the death rate of chronic diseases
especially the heart diseases was too much high. This
problem has been solved with the evolution of
technology especially in the field of artificial
intelligence. The process of constant monitoring and
required medication can be controlled by especially
designed wearable medical devices which are
connected to each other and communicate. The
whole tiresome process has been changed with
wearable IoT’s which is easy to control and monitor.
This paper addresses the fundamental
working methodology of wearable IoT’s, and their
use in healthcare systems especially in the treatment
of chronic disease.
Introduction:
Technology, especially information technology and
computer science, is revolutionizing human life from
entertainment to the basic human needs. In all these
innovations, it is making a huge progress in medical
science day by day. The most encouraging aspect of
progress in health care is the use of computer-based
diagnosis systems. The latest and most researched
field of these systems is the use of artificial
intelligence and smart devices in healthcare. In
primary healthcare, chronic disease is considered
very troublesome. According to WHO, almost 5
million people will die from chronic diseases over
the next 10 years in the United Kingdom [1]. The
chronic disease requires special care and attention to
keep the patient on track of recovery. Therefore,
proper and timely diagnosis of chronic disease is the
most challenging task for medical experts. In most of
the cases, the diagnosis takes very long time until the
disease becomes more critical and injurious.
Furthermore, the regular visits of hospital and
medication trials make the condition worse.
In recent times, the use of smart devices
along with Internet of Things (IOT) in healthcare has
helped a lot in eradicating the chronic disease. These
devices are normally called wearable devices. These
devices track the physiological activities of the
patient along the course of daily routine tasks. This
is a real-time diagnosis process which recognizes the
human activity and its impact on the body. There are
installed a wide range of sensors in the devices which
retrieve the essential data from the body of the
patient. With the advent of Micro Electromechanical
Systems (MEMS) technology, the motion detecting
sensors have advanced from primitive costly and
bulky sensors to existing miniature low cost sensors
[2]. The data is analyzed to diagnose the patient for
the chronic disease. The process of diagnosis is two-
fold. First, the device segregates the retrieved
information to get the information regarding the
specific chronic disease. Second, the segregated data
is transferred to medical experts via text message or
any other means for further diagnosis [3]. The patient
is informed at first stage via text message or device
notification to take the precautionary measures. In
the next step, the patient is called by the medical
expert if necessary.
This paper aims to discuss the recent
developments, problems and future perspectives of
the use of wearable medical devices and the IOT in
healthcare. It has a lot of medical applications such
as remote health monitoring, fitness programs,
chronic diseases, and elderly care. The chronic
diseases like diabetes, hypertension and
cardiovascular are being continuously monitored
through wearable devices. Another important feature
of these devices is the home treatment and
medication. Hence, these devices and sensors can be
considered as smart devices making an integral part
of the IoT [4]. These smart devices have proved
highly helpful for individual use. However, there are
some problems with them like data integrity,
standardization, cybersecurity, medical ethics and
some legal issues as well. Some studies also tell that
these devices have proved wrong in diagnosing the
patient in some cases. For instance, there has been
reported multiple cases regarding the inefficiencies
in the nationwide EHR system in the USA [5]. The
future trends of smart devices in healthcare are very
attractive for both the consumers and industrialists.
The consumer demand to monitor his own health is
increasing. Therefore, the companies are focusing on
introducing new devices with advanced features. The
researchers are trying hard to bring diversity in the
devices and their functioning.
Internet of Things (IoT):
In recent times, the use of smart devices has
increased too much. Almost everything is going
towards automation due to the advancement in
artificial intelligence. Therefore, human beings are
focusing on developing such devices which require
less human intervention in their functioning. These
devices are always connected to each other while
taking the instructions from each other. The core of
these devices is called the internet of things. Internet
of Things (IoT) is a concept in artificial intelligence
which indicates a set of connected things or devices
which communicates to each other without any
human intervention. There are many applications of
IoT in smart cities, waste management, healthcare,
security, emergency situations, industrial processes,
logistics etc. [6].
Human Activity Detection:
Chronic diseases are becoming very common day by
day. It is usually not detected at early stages and
becomes worse. Furthermore, the chronic diseases
require constant monitoring and medication which
becomes tiresome with the passage of time. The IoT
provides a very good solution to the patients of
chronic disease. The IoT comprises of a set of
connected smart devices which communicate to each
other to retrieve and transfer essential data from a
selected source. In figure 1, a schematic diagram
indicating the working of smart device has been
shown. Human activity is very important in the
diagnosis and medication of the chronic diseases.
The smart devices are equipped with multiple
varieties of sensors which detect the required human
activity and bodily responses. For example, glucose
level indication of diabetic patients, ECG monitoring
of heart patients, blood pressure monitoring, body
temperature monitoring, oxygen saturation
management, remote medication and healthcare
management are important features of IoT in
healthcare.
The sensors constantly retrieve data from the
body of the patients and perform the activity
analysis. Some prototypes are also equipped with
alert systems which use the GPS, SMS and mobile
data. The common sensors used in detecting the
required activities include the accelerometer,
gyroscope sensors, blood pressure sensor,
temperature sensor and some biomedical sensors. In
the recent advancement of human activity detection
systems, the new phase of research is focusing on the
use of mobile devices which are already equipped the
required sensors and some functions can be achieved
through mobile applications. There are some
difficulties with the use of mobile cells for this
purpose [7].
Recent Wearable Internet of Things:
In the past decade, there has been a rapid
advancement in the use of the IoT in healthcare
sectors. This sector of technology has evolved from
the simple body temperature sensing devices to the
complex cancer tumor sensors. In this section, some
important and prominent smart medical devices will
be discussed along with their brief internal structure.
Continuous Glucose Monitor: This device
continuously monitors the blood glucose level and
takes readings after regular intervals for several days.
The collected data is sent to a connected device
which can be a mobile phone of the consumer. In this
way, the consumer can constantly check the blood
sugar level hence the condition of the disease. This
device uses a non-invasive opto-physiological sensor
whose output is received as an electrical sensor. In
the IoT protocols, IPV6 and 6LoWPAN is used to
enable the wireless sensing devices.
Heart Rate Monitoring: This device monitors the
heart beat rate or ECG of the patients suffering from
cardiovascular. This is an electrical process
performed by heart. The application of the IoT to
ECG monitoring has the potential to give maximum
information and can be used to its fullest extent [8].
This device uses a capitative electrode to record the
heart rate which is transmitted through a wireless
device. In the IoT protocols, BLE and Wifi gateway
is used in this device.
Blood Pressure Monitoring: This device
continuously measures the blood pressure of the
patient suffering from hypertension. This allows the
consumer to monitor his blood pressure and treat it
on time. This device uses a blood pressure sensor
based on an oscillometer. It works on the principle of
automatic inflation and measurement. In the IoT
protocols, WBAN is used as a gateway to connect
and communicate the network devices.
Body Temperature Monitoring: This device
measures the body temperature of the patient and
indicates with an alarm in case of higher body
temperature. The device uses a temperature sensor to
measure the temperature. In the IoT protocols,
WBAN is used to connect the devices.
Oxygen Saturation Monitoring: This device
continuously measures the blood oxygen level by
using oximetry sensor. The retrieved data is
transferred though a Bluetooth device.
Medication Management: This IoT based network of
devices monitors the physiological activities of
patients to suggest the required medication or any
change in the treatment. This device works with a
controlled sealing based on delamination materials
controlled by wireless communications.
Cancer Detection: In 2018, another revolutionary
data has been presented regarding the treatment of
head and neck cancer using a Bluetooth enabled
weight scale and blood pressure cuff.
Apple Depression Watch: This is a new development
in the IoT based smart devices. This watch monitors
the mood and cognition of the patient. This has not
been made locally available yet.
There are some smart medical devices which need a
smartphone for their operation. Some of the devices
has been discussed below.
Asthma Monitoring: It uses the microphone audio
system of a smartphone. It measures the air flowrate
and flow volume through the throat of the patient.
Eye Disorder Detection: It uses the camera of a
smartphone to visually inspect the eye of the patient.
The taken pictures are compared with the samples
available in the memory to check the eye disorder.
Current Research Challenges:
There are a lot of challenges which are being faced
by both the researchers and the developers at this
time. The main challenges are related to the retrieved
data of the consumer. The data integrity,
standardization, cybersecurity, medical ethics and
legality are the challenges being faced by the
researchers. The concerns of data privacy are very
important. It involves both the medical ethics and
legal issues. In this challenge, struggles are being
made by governments and concerned authorities to
impose some regulations on data privacy.
The cybersecurity is another concern which
is hindering the progress of wearable technology. At
this time, there has not been made any regulations by
any government regarding the wearable medical
devices. Therefore, it must be ensured by the
manufacturers to timely update the security
essentials to avoid vulnerabilities of the system.
The most important challenge is the standardization.
There is no standardization in the manufacturing
sector and healthcare sector. There are many
manufacturers in this sector but the compliance with
the design standards and rules is not followed
properly. It raises the interoperability issues. The
results and analysis created by the device is not
verified and recommended by any medical
regulatory. The patient is instructed to consulted
with the suggested medical expert for consultation.
This is the same tiresome process which was being
face the patients. Therefore, this is the most
researched and debated topic in the IoT based
medical devices [9].
Future Trends:
The future trends in the sectors of the IoT based
medical devices are multifold. The manufacturers are
working on bringing diversity and innovation in the
devices. New proposals are being presented to
medical authorities to regularize the devices. There
is a new race among the manufacturers. The top list
of manufacturers includes CISCO, Apple, Microsoft,
Google and Samsung. The researchers are trying to
resolve the problems which are mitigating the pace
of progress in this sector. New studies are being
presented on the problems like data security and
cybersecurity issues. The problems of
malfunctioning as in case of EHR are being resolved
by the concerned authorities with the help of
researchers. The new front of research is in artificial
intelligence which will produce self-learning
intelligent devices [10].
Conclusion:
The IoT based smart medical devices are becoming
the integral part of innovative healthcare system.
These devices have made the medical diagnosis and
medication process very user friendly and effective.
The use smart devices in treating chronic diseases is
a strong evidence in the favor of this technology.
Now, the treatment and monitoring of chronic
diseases is not a troublesome process. However,
there is a lot which can be done to revolutionize these
devices and the IoT notworking. Therefore, all the
stake holders must come forward to eradicate the
hurdles in this way. All the data security legal and
ethical issues should be resolved by making some
legal regulations for this sector. The standardization
should be the core feature of these devices in the
industrial protocols. It will bring a revolution in this
sector which will make the healthcare system more
secure and promising.
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