IoT IN HEALTHCARE

Philips Digital Healthcare Conclave 2017 #ConnectedCare In Focus by Sagay Mary, @hisagay

/ OTHERS / 4 minutes of reading

What if expensive, specialized patient monitoring systems in ICUs could be replaced with discreet sensors that transmitted all the vital health data directly to the doctors’ smartphones? What if the data could be analysed to deliver intelligible insights as well? Not only would it ensure better quality of care, it would also help bring down equipment and overhead costs for the hospital by eliminating expensive equipment and by even allowing patients to be cared for at home. The good news is that, this is not a hypothetical scenario but a real possibility as technology makes connected healthcare a reality.


 The 2017 edition of the Philips Healthcare Conclave held on 28th July 2017 addressed the confluence of technology and healthcare and its significant impact on patient care, accessibility, and affordability. The conference shed light on why Connected Healthcare is the need of the hour for our country and how it can solve the existing healthcare problems. The conference was graced by the presence of industry stalwarts like Dr. Shalini Rajneesh, Principal Secretary Family and Health Welfare, Government of Karnataka and Dr. Pramod K. Varma, Chief Architect, Aadhaar. The speakers discussed how Connected Care and AI supported by UIDAI (Aadhaar) could help in addressing the challenges faced by the Indian Healthcare System. 

 The discussion also highlighted The National Healthcare Policy 2017, which talks about how Connected Healthcare is the solution to the existing healthcare problems in India. The policy suggests the setting up of a National Digital Health Authority (NDHA) to regulate, develop and deploy digital health across the continuum of care using digital technologies. It highlights the role of Aadhaar to make connected healthcare a reality by establishing a seamless and efficient National Health Information Network. The panel also discussed how Philips has been at the forefront of using digital technology in healthcare. Its various connected care solutions have increased accessibility to care in remotest corners of the world, empowered patients to manage their health while also giving health providers tools to improve patient outcomes. With a mission to touch more than 3 billion lives by 2025, Philips is working towards creating meaningful innovations that will make Healthcare accessible to all.

 Affordability, accessibility and the over-all ecosystem were in sharp focus through all the discussions during the day. All the speakers emphasized that a comprehensive overhaul of existing healthcare frameworks cannot happen in isolation; it requires a supportive ecosystem to be sustainable and scalable. The ecosystem ranges from primary health care centers and doctors to healthcare technology companies and start-ups. Most importantly, in a Connected Healthcare scenario, Internet networks and seamless connectivity are just as important as any directly medical element. The speakers almost unanimously agreed that a connected healthcare system in India needs both the private and public sectors to work in tandem.

 The conference saw industry thought leaders emphasizing the current state of readiness for implementing connected care systems in India, as well the areas that need attention. Technology stacks like Aadhar are already in place, ready for both public and private enterprises to build comprehensive healthcare solutions on. At this juncture, it is important to focus on developing and empowering the macro ecosystem to work with digital systems. From education and awareness programs to data security protocols and legal frameworks, both government as well as the private sector needs to work together to ensure a robust and workable system.

  As with any major technology disruption, people are at the crux of the move to Connected Healthcare systems. The speakers stressed the fact that doctors will remain relevant even in the future tech enabled state of healthcare, and be empowered to better diagnose and treat their patients with the use of technology. The conference also highlighted the fact that ultimately, digital healthcare systems will go a long way in reducing costs. Currently, Karnataka alone spends more than Rs. 6000 crores to extend healthcare services to just 5 percent of its total population. Connected Healthcare systems have the potential to guarantee universal access to quality healthcare with seamless links between hospitals and people.  

 Affordability, accessibility and adoption were hot topics within the healthcare sector even about 30 years ago. While they still remain in focus three decades later, now for the first time, there is a strong glimmer of hope, as technology makes it easier to find answers to these challenges. As the experts at the conclave pointed out, the world has just scratched the surface of Connected Healthcare, the possibilities are endless and future looks bright. 

Author
Sagay Mary

Manager, Corporate Communications at Philips, Bangalore responsible for branding and communications

#IoHT is already delivering tangible cost savings, but continuous investment is essential – Accenture

/ OTHERS / 4 minutes of reading
Image Source: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-accenture-2017-internet-health-things-survey

The Internet of Health Things (IoHT) is already delivering tangible cost savings, but continuous investment is essential

In a recently published report by Accenture [2], based on a survey of 77 Healthcare payers and 77 Healthcare providers in the US, the reports findings indicate that healthcare leaders are at risk of missing out on substantial cost savings, if they don’t take the full advantage of Internet of Health Things (IoHT).


The report indicated that by introducing more connectivity, remote monitoring, and information gathering IoHT can encourage more informed decisions, better use of resources and empowering healthcare users.

According to estimates, the value of IoHT will top US$163 billion by 2020, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 38.1 percent between 2015 and 2020.[1] Within the next five years the healthcare sector is projected to be #1 in the top 10 industries for Internet of Things app development.[2]

What is Internet of Health Things?

Internet of Health Things (IoHT) is the integration of the physical and digital worlds through objects with network connectivity in the healthcare industry. IoHT transforms raw data in simple, actionable information and communicates with other objects, machines or people. IoHT can be leveraged to improve access to health, quality of care, consumer experience and operational efficiency 

Source: Accenture Report
Source: Accenture Report








The report lists four major takeaways for the payors and providers: 

The Time is Now

Despite challenges with security and privacy, inaction is not an option. There are players outside of traditional healthcare organizations looking at these same industry challenges and considering ways to capture the opportunity. If providers and payers do not invest in demonstrating IoHT value now, they risk losing out to non-traditional players. Going forward, providers and payers must identify parts of the business where IoHT solutions may be applied to do things differently—and do different things to grow in the long-term.

Measure and Build on Successes

Providers and payers have already demonstrated value through IoHT—but they need to continue investments to better understand where programs are successful to prepare for future scaling. They need to measure effectiveness beyond the technology and then build on those areas of effectiveness quickly to offer value across the business. By demonstrating the benefits and best practices, providers and payers can strengthen business cases, encourage adoption and drive interoperability.

Put consumers First

Providers and payers must continue to incorporate IoHT solutions that drive better experiences and healthier patient outcomes, along with key medical and administrative cost savings initiatives. IoHT solutions offer the seamless collection of patient-generated health data, enabling providers and payers to provide more convenient, personalized and effective care. They must train their workforces to make IoHT a part of the “new normal.”

Form Nimble Partnerships

Technology and innovation partners can help payers and providers quickly test and learn how IoHT can drive business value to inform future scaling requirements. Strategy and change management partners can help to integrate these new technologies into their workflow, culture and training. 

Key Findings of the Survey

  • 73% consider IoHT to be a major change, and consider IoHT to be a major disruptor in three years. 
  • however, 49% say the leadership at these organisations are yet to understand the potential of IoHT. 
  • As IT investments are going up so are the IoHT investments seeing to become a major budget line item.
  • Healthcare providers and payors are investing in IoHT in three areas of their businesses – RPM, wellness and operations. And these organisations are reporting real benefits from the initial programs.
  • While 57 percent of healthcare organizations surveyed say that their IT departments lead the IoHT charge, 26 percent say their research and development (R&D) divisions are leading their IoHT efforts and one in ten organizations even have dedicated IoHT subsidiaries or business units.
  • RPM Based IoHT: 33% of PROVIDERS report extensive operational cost savings from their RPM IoHT programs. 42% of PAYERS report extensive medical cost savings from their RPM IoHT programs. 
  • The majority of both providers’ (76%) and payers’(75%) RPM IoHT investments are focused on cardiac conditions. Interestingly, in the past, behavioral health has not received investment at similar levels to traditional high-cost areas such as cardiac, but the spotlight appears to now be shining on this area. Mental health, including behavioral health, is a relatively high priority for both providers (48 percent) and payers (55 percent)
Source: Accenture Report, [2]


References

[1] “The Internet Of Medical Things–What Healthcare Marketers Need to Know Now,” January 2016, Victoria Petrock: Contributors: Annalise Clayton, Maria Minsker, Jennifer Pearson, eMarketer.

[2] Accenture 2017 Internet of Health Things Survey 
https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-accenture-2017-internet-health-things-survey


And there you go, its fairly simple and we look forward to you sharing your experiences with our community of readers. We appreciate you considering sharing your knowledge via The HCITExpert Blog

Team @HCITExperts
Author
Team HCITExperts

Your partner in Digital Health Transformation using innovative and insightful ideas

What is #ConnectedCare? Is the Healthcare Industry ready to embrace it in India?

/ OTHERS / 3 minutes of reading

During the recently held #PhilipsChat the from Philips Healthcare set the agenda to discuss various aspects of what is Connected Care? 
(http://blog.hcitexpert.com/p/connected-medical-devices.html) 

Whenever a TweetChat is held, the moderator puts out an agenda for the discussion. Once its time, the participants share their point of view by Tweeting out their responses to the questions, tweeted by the moderator. 


 The Connected Care #PhilipsChat questions follow and I Look forward to You sharing your thoughts and point of view on the role of Connected Care in Healthcare: 

 1. How would you explain connected care in one line? 
2. Is the healthcare industry ready to embrace connected care?
3. How are your organization using connected care? Since when?
4. Based on your experience, what are the elements to enable connected care further?
5. How are you involving policy makers to embrace connected care?

 If we take these questions with an india context, how connected care can enable the affordability and accessibility to healthcare in India. These are the most often mentioned aspects of Healthcare, that needs to be addressed by not only the government, but also the Startup community willing to disrupt the Health Tech / Digital Health industry. 

 I have attempted to share my thoughts on Connected Care questions put forward during the tweetchat and I hope you will consider sharing your insights by filling in the form below

1. How would you explain connected care in one tweet?

An always connected channel of communication of care between the patient and provider, from “touch time” to “face time”  

2. Is the healthcare industry ready to embrace connected care?

In India, with the major push for digital services by the govt and private healthcare facilities, and with 350+MN internet users connected care is the only way to solve the accessibility to healthcare problem (1:3200 doctor to patient ratio)

4. Based on your experience, what are the elements to enable connected care further?

The connected care needs to bring about change in thought of how to use a connected care framework for the patient as well as the doctor. 

 For the patient, connected care is about 
– experience that enables an ease of access to care
– Ability to build their own healthcare record’s completeness 
– Have a better set of processes and #workflows to manage their health and care 
– Have the ability to find “patients like me” and be part of the community 

 For the Doctor, I believe it will be about 
– how to glean new insights from the data stream
– How to collaborate with a patient via an always connected model? What signifies the end of a consultation? 
– To build constantly evolving care plans for their patients, based on realtime, near-realtime, time-delay, or frequency per day/week month updates
– To evolve more treatment plans based on the insights that can be drawn from the raw patient data feed (an e.g.)
– How to build a community and be part of a community of specialists to keep themselves up-to-date on the current research and practices.
I am including the Questions as a Google Form, do consider sharing your insights into what is Connected Care? And how do you see it being enabled for the benefit of the patients and clinicians.

Author

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Manish Sharma

Founder HCITExpert.com, Digital Health Entrepreneur

Connect with me via any of my Social Media Channels

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Continuous Glucose Monitoring Made Affordable and Accessible by Piyush Gupta @Ambrosia_Sys

/ Startup Showcase / 5 minutes of reading

Living with diabetes comes with many challenges. At the top of the list is monitoring glucose levels to avoid a health crisis. Monitoring can be inconvenient and expensive, but thanks to advances in technology, these issues are being addressed like never before.

Dealing With Diabetes
Diabetes relates to the body’s ability to produce and process the hormone insulin. Without it, cells cannot absorb sugar, or glucose, which we need for energy.


 Diabetics are typically diagnosed with one of two types of the disease: Type 1 or Type 2. Type 1 is when the body produces no insulin. The immune system destroys the cells that release it. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body is not producing enough insulin, or the levels produced are not sufficient to help the body generate energy.

 In either case, the person diagnosed must make lifestyle changes to ensure glucose levels are kept in check. According to the American Diabetes Association, individuals with type 1 and type 2 diabetes should work out at least 2 hours/wk spread over 3 days/wk with no more than 2 consecutive days without exercise. The ADA also recommends nutritional counselling to address eating patterns, including lowering carbohydrates, fat intake and adding fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy to your diet. Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all program, and it’s important to consult your doctor to determine the dietary, exercise and behavioural changes that are best for you.

By The Numbers

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 29.1 million people or 9.3% of the US population has diabetes. Type 2 diabetes accounts for the largest group of people who have diabetes.

Another 86 million have been diagnosed as being pre-diabetic.

 Globally, according to a 2016 report by the World Health Association, an estimated 422 million adults were living with diabetes in 2014, compared to 108 million in 1980. In fact, the global prevalence of diabetes has nearly doubled since 1980, rising from 4.7% to 8.5% in the adult population. Diabetes is on the rise not only in the United States but also around the world, and the complications from diabetes are impacting individuals and their families.

 Behind these numbers are people coming to terms with the emotional and physical realities of managing their disease. We mentioned the importance of activity and exercise as well as healthy eating habits. Stress is also an important considering when managing diabetes. Learning to live with diabetes can weigh down the strongest amongst us and that stress can raise your blood sugar. Learning ways to lower stress, from yoga and deep breathing to gardening and listening to your favourite music, can keep your mind in a healthy state. 

 The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases recommends acquainting yourself with the ABCs: your A1C, Blood Pressure, and Cholesterol. Considering your ABCs can help lower your chances of having a heart attack, stroke, or other diabetes problems. When it comes to your blood pressure, monitoring it is a necessary addition to your daily routine. The key to the lifestyle changes diabetics undergo is having options to monitor glucose levels that are both effective, and affordable.

Technology Makes Monitoring Easier

Active management and monitoring of glucose is neither convenient nor cost effective for many. Some medical professionals recommend up to 10 tests per day. Assuming you have the schedule and discipline to stick with it, most diabetics have had to resort to testing their glucose levels through frequent, invasive needle pricks on their fingers.

 There are saliva-testing devices under review by the US Food and Drug Administration, and Google was rumoured to be testing smart contact lenses that could monitor glucose levels as well. But a finger sticks remains the most common test despite the pain of a prick, the need to record readings and do so multiple times per day.

 More convenient and accurate methods of testing glucose levels are becoming more readily available. For example, Abbott Laboratories invented the FreeStyle Libre system.

 The device has been hailed for its convenience. Placed just under the skin, the sensor continuously measures glucose levels in the interstitial fluid that bathes the cells. Those wearing the device can use their smartphones to get immediate readings. According to Bloomberg, FreeStyle Libre users scanned their sensors an average 16 times a day; some exceeded 45.

 While the repeated checks help diabetics lower their glucose levels, Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) systems are costly. Prices can range between $3,000 and $4,000/year, limiting the accessibility of life-saving monitoring. However, companies like Ambrosia Systems are reinventing the wheel, bringing cost savings and convenience to glucose monitoring.

 Introducing BluCon
We invented BluCon to build an affordable next generation continuous glucose monitoring like system for diabetic and pre-diabetic patients. Our iOS and Android apps work with Abbot’s FreeStyle Libre sensor, sending glucose readings to any Bluetooth enabled connected device.

 Today, two factors prohibit active monitoring and management of diabetes: cost and inconvenience. BluCon quickly reads data from Abbott’s FreeStyle Libre sensor and sends that data to the LinkBluCon mobile app on your phone for less than half the annual cost of available solutions. Our battery life is also twice as long, adding to the convenience and cost savings brought by BluCon.

 Living with diabetes entails constant glucose monitoring, which, as we noted, can mean significant lifestyle changes. Checking glucose levels, and keeping an accurate record, can be complicated. BluCon is meant to simplify glucose monitoring and ongoing management of your type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

Author
Piyush Gupta

Several years experience in product management worked at Abbott Diabetes Care, Kaiser Permanente, Capital One Bank and a couple of healthcare startups as senior product management executive. Helped companies in building next generation platform, iOS and android mobile products

Blog Series: #IoT in Healthcare by Swetha Jegannathan @csweths

/ OTHERS / 9 minutes of reading

The opportunity in #healthcare IoT is estimated to be $2.5 trillion by 2025. How are we embracing this change? The Types of Opportunities (http://blog.hcitexpert.com/2016/05/infographic-iot-in-healthcare-opportunities.html) that present themselves to the Startups, Healthcare IT organisations are tremendous.
Presenting the insights shared by Swetha Jegannathan (@csweths) on #IoT in Healthcare #PhilipsChat.
Q1: In the near term (1-3 years), What are the top 3 innovations in IoT that can benefit healthcare?:
Swetha Jegannathan:
1. Geriatric Care – IoT is and will continue to be of great value in elderly care, allowing the doctors and care givers to monitor, track and alert when away from their loved ones – especially in cases of neurological disorders like Dementia and Alzheimer.
2. Maternal and Infant Monitoring – IoT, through monitoring devices worn by the individual, can provide timely intervention in the area of maternal and infant health – one of the primary goals of the UN sustainable development agenda.
3. Remote consulting – The low doctor patient ratio in India can be effectively overcome through remote consulting – making patients responsible for their well-being – leading to the doctors and hospitals prioritise focus on emergency and chronic patients.

Note: Since radio frequency is central to most of the IoT innovations, innovator must adhere to protection standards on effects of radio frequency (RF) fields as tabulated by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP, 1998) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE, 2005)

Further the paper “IEEE Standard for Safety Levels with Respect to Human Exposure to Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields, 3 kHz to 300 GHz” also gives few pointers on safe use of the IOT technology. http://emfguide.itu.int/pdfs/C95.1-2005.pdf
Q2: Is an IoT based system going to be a utility or a service?:
Swetha Jegannathan: The system will be successful if offered as a service. Hospitals would be the drivers providing this service to their patients with companies engaged in the manufacture and distribution of medical devices being the enablers of the technology.
Q3. Do you see any device, connected via any protocol and with any cloud; as the future, if yes how will that be achieved? Standards?:
Swetha Jegannathan: RFID based devices connected through the anti-collision protocols and the Apple watch will be the future.

The RFID chips are inserted into the human beings for unique identification and capture of information relating to their general health and well being like blood pressure, weight, blood sugar levels.  The RFID tags can also be used for improving the efficiency of the medicine distribution networks as tracking of the medicines becomes easier.

Prevention of inappropriate usage of the collected information in terms of charging higher insurance premiums or classification of the individuals tracked by the device is one of the biggest challenges to its widespread implementation. However, if used judiciously, healthcare can certainly move from curative to preventive care.

RFID standards need to focus on the following:
– How the RFID systems work
– What frequencies do they operate on and how to use a common frequency across the globe
– Method of data transfer
– Communication between reader and the tags
– Complementary products development compatible to the RFID
 
Q4: In India (or your country), what are the Digital Infrastructure requirements for enabling IoT based Innovations in Healthcare?:
Swetha Jegannathan: In India, most of the patient data is available in physical form and this needs to be converted to electronic form.  Only if 100% of the required data is in electronic form, further analysis can be simplified.
For all the required data to be available electronically and their analysis, high end scanners, significant investment in hardware – to cater to large databases – and software (machine learning – image recognition; AI) to effectively manage data and make decisions. Further, a standard medical data code for data transmission and retrieval is a prerequisite.
Once the data is collected, stored and retrieved efficiently, analysis is accurate and easier leading to appropriate decision making.
Q5. How can hospitals leverage #IoT based solutions for service delivery and patient care? :
Swetha Jegannathan: Some usage of IOT in the indian and international hospitals are given below:
– GE used sensors in a New York hospital to track the usage of hospital beds resulting in  optimised occupancy levels and reduced the emergency room wait times by four hours.
– e-Alert, a HW/SW solution by Philips Healthcare, virtually monitors the health of its machines to prevent outages. Timely alerts on the wear and tear of the machines leads to savings on replacements and repair.
– In India, Manipal Hospitals has been using a wearable device for the expecting mothers to enable doctors to remotely monitor real time information of the growing foetus.
– Apollo hospitals has been an early adaptor of IoT in the country in healthcare for accessing patient records at one go with its Unique Hospital Identification initiative across the country.
In addition to the above, the hospitals can leverage IOT in the following areas:
– Clinical decision enablers
– Effective control on hospital borne infections
– Targeted and painless surgery using AI/ VR.
– Connected care pre and post discharge
Q6: What are the aspects of Connected Care for the Patient Care Continuum (https://twitter.com/HCITExpert/status/692309239570628608):
Swetha Jegannathan: Connected care for patient care continuum would include:
1. Preventive health – with regular check-ups, timely alerts and early interventions
2. In-Patient Care – Personalised treatment enabled by technology
3. Post operative care – Remote tracking, consulting and treatment follow-ups using telemedicine and diagnostic tools.
Q7. Please share usecases for Connected Care for: Healthy Living, Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment, Homecare:
Swetha Jegannathan: The use case suggested is based on the premise that it is executed at state level involving the hospitals and care givers.
– The state monitors the citizen’s health using IoT technology – Wearable/ regular check-ups to name a few
– State collects data and, post analysis, alerts the hospitals if there is a deviation from normal
– Concerned citizen and the hospital are in touch and the identified individual is put on preventive treatment with periodic observation of the readings
– If the preventive treatment is successful, then sustenance is monitored through home care including life style changes
– If the preventive treatment is not working for the individual, further investigation is encouraged.  Post investigation, if the individual is diagnosed with the suspected condition, the relevant treatment procedure is given to the individual.
– Monitoring of the progress of the individual’s condition during the treatment is an important step
– On conclusion that the treatment is successful, the hospital, through IOT, will monitor the relevant data periodically.
– The hospital and the individual may decide to have remote follow up consultations till the individual is deemed to be healthy again and there are no signs of relapse.
Q8: What are the Healthcare based Smart City components? How can Local, State and National Government’s make #IoT solutions in healthcare economically viable?:
Swetha Jegannathan:
The following are the healthcare based Smart City components:
– Digital e-health and m-health systems
– Remote patient monitoring leading to customised treatments and medication
– Devices and wearables linking patients with remotely present doctors and nurses
– Data anonymisation
– New innovations on sharing medical learnings that are digitally collected
– Common medical data standards for collection, distribution, analysis and retrieval

The implementation of the Smart City concept in healthcare can be achieved by having a model district containing the above components.  This model needs to be continuously monitored and course corrected (wherever relevant) for it to be successfully expanded to the state, other states and finally the country.

Healthcare based Smart City components, if implemented efficiently, will lead to optimisation of the healthcare costs incurred by the governments.
Q9: How can private hospitals justify the RoI’s of Smart Hospital Components? :
Swetha Jegannathan: Thought, the initial investment and efforts required may be enormous, the patient convenience and hospital resource optimisation through the process streamlining will be worth the efforts and the investment. With the entire patient record being seamlessly available to all the relevant stakeholders, significant savings will be achieved in collecting, sharing and transcribing data – in terms of cost and time. This would also minimise medical errors and, in turn, enhance the reputation of the hospitals in the long run.
Q10: Give us a Buzzword we are going to be hearing regarding IoT based innovations in Healthcare.:
Swetha Jegannathan: Human barcoding
Q11. Tell us a 5 Year view of IoT in Healthcare and what would a Patient Experience in a Smart Hospital?:
Swetha Jegannathan: In 5 years the patients should be able to experience hospitals as wellness clinics with patient centric design in both service and delivery being the priority. This would be achieved if the following plan in implemented in a systematic manner:
– The patient will be assigned to the nearest healthcare facility by the smart city based healthcare network algorithm
– When the patient walks into the hospital (without any physical file), the face recognition technology will retrieve his records and direct him to appropriate department for treatment and physician without any wait time
– Incase of further investigation, the medical record will be sent to the nearest laboratory that then collects the samples from the patient and send the results to the hospitals online for further deciding treatment protocol, including surgeries and therapies. Alternatively for some tests FDA approved diagnostic mobile applications can replace the laborious laboratory tests and share the results instantly with the hospital over the data cloud
– Painless surgeries with targeted robotic precision will be the norm
– During the treatment course (either as in-patient/ out-patient), medical prescription is shared electronically with the pharmacy that delivers the medicine to the patient
– Home care will be an extension of the hospital care with the wearables monitoring the patient’s health and alerting medicine/ therapy schedule
– Physicians will do remote consulting for acute cases, thus freeing them and hospital facilities to attend to only chronic patient in person
– After the recovery stage, the IoT based diagnostic kits will be used to monitor the health of the patient remotely and alert any relapse or detect a new condition

Thus, seamless integration of health system and data without human intervention (or edits) will greatly reduce medical errors and enhance the patient experience.
Q12. Finally: What areas of IoT based innovations are you looking to partner with Startups for? Can you give us two areas?:
Swetha Jegannathan: – Technologies looking at reducing or eliminating the radiation effects of radio frequency that is so central to IoT use cases.
– Smart human centric designs to make healthcare more patient centric without compromising on the human touch.


Stay tuned to the #IoT in Healthcare Blog series Bookmark this link to follow on the insights being shared by the experts on the HCITExpert Blog:

Author
Swetha Jegannathan

Swetha is a lifescience/ healthcare IT consultant with focus on business flow, pre and postsale lifecycle of a software. She has been fortunate to be part of different sub-sectors within the health and life science vertical, be it e-health and m-health at Eli-Lilly Co-Innovation lab for HCL, Singapore or Clinical Data Management & Computation and Laboratory Information Management Software (LIMS) suite at Phase Forward – Waban Software group (now acquired by Oracle) and Ocimum Bioslutions. She has catered to clients across major pharmaceutical majors in US, Europe and South East Asia.

She was instrumental is setting up the DNA sequencing wet lab for MWG Biotech (Now Eurofins), a German company, when they were establishing their base in India in 2004.

Swetha is also passionate about promoting green businesses and innovations that are socially relevant, economically viable and environmentally sustainable. An advocate and practitioner of natural living, she has also done social work assignments with focus on sustainable agriculture, food security and environment. (nominated for the UN Online Volunteering Award in 2010 and her volunteering work was published in UN Online Volunteering newsletter March 2011) and covered in The Strait Times, Singapore national daily.

Specialties: Digital health, Green business, Start-up facilitator, Business Analysis, Consulting, Entrepreneur, Marketing, Social Media, Project Management, Presentation Skills, Networking.

Blog Series: #IoT in Healthcare By Rajesh Batra, @rbatra868

/ OTHERS / 3 minutes of reading

The opportunity in #healthcare IoT is estimated to be $2.5 trillion by 2025. How are we embracing this change? The Types of Opportunities that present themselves to the Startups, Healthcare IT organisations are tremendous.
During the #PhilipsChat, on the 10th April 2017, we asked the experts what they thought about the current trends and focus areas that the IT Industry, Medical Device Manufacturers, Hospitals and Startups will need to keep in view in the near and short-term while making their organisation ready for the Digital Transformation that can be and will be enabled by #IoT in Healthcare.  
Presenting the insights shared by Rajesh Batra (@rbatra868), VP-IT, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai on #IoT in Healthcare #PhilipsChat.

Q1: In the near term (1-3 years), What are the top 3 innovations in IoT that can benefit healthcare?:
Rajesh Batra: Home care and home physiotherapy

Q2: Is an IoT based system going to be a utility or a service?:
Rajesh Batra: Service

Q3. Do you see any device, connected via any protocol and with any cloud; as the future, if yes how will that be achieved? Standards?:
Rajesh Batra: Yes. Even today, there are trials going on for pregnancy related data coming to hospitals. Elderly care is also happening

Q4: In India (or your country), what are the Digital Infrastructure requirements for enabling IoT based Innovations in Healthcare?:
Rajesh Batra: The cost for thin broad band, which is used in IoT needs to come down

Q5. How can hospitals leverage #IoT based solutions for service delivery and patient care? :
Rajesh Batra: It is an eco system under evolution. We need to wait for a couple of years, when hospitals will be focused on delivery through IoT

Q6: What are the aspects of Connected Care for the Patient Care Continuum (https://twitter.com/HCITExpert/status/692309239570628608):
Rajesh Batra: Elderly care and Preventive care

Q7: What are the Healthcare based Smart City components? How can Local, State and National Government’s make #IoT solutions in healthcare economically viable?:
Rajesh Batra: Not sure of Government role in IoT. It is best done in Public Private partnership to keep it viable. Government can’t be responsible for service delivery. However, government can look into duties for devices and cost of thereof and cost of thin broadband.

Q8: How can private hospitals justify the RoI’s of Smart Hospital Components? :
Rajesh Batra: As said, it is an evolving service. So it needs to be watched closely

Q9: Give us a Buzzword we are going to be hearing regarding IoT based innovations in Healthcare.:
Rajesh Batra: Home care and Elderly care

Q10. Tell us a 5 Year view of IoT in Healthcare and what would a Patient Experience in a Smart Hospital?:
Rajesh Batra: Refer to my presentation at Philips Innovation day https://youtu.be/oxllMGzp6gI

Q11. Finally: What areas of IoT based innovations are you looking to partner with Startups for? Can you give us two areas?:
Rajesh Batra: At the moment, we are in the process of implementing Beacons for a better patient experience at the hospital.

References

  1. Here is the original Blog Post announcing the #PhilipsChat Tweetchat : http://blog.hcitexpert.com/2017/04/philipschat-on-iot-in-healthcare.html
  2. Curated list of Tweets from the #PhilipsChat: https://twitter.com/i/moments/852242427008233473
  3. Review the #PhilipsChat Transcript & analytics via @symplur here >> http://hcsm.io/2loNiv7
  4. [VIDEO] IT to #IoT in Healthcare by @rbatra868 via @PhilipsBlore  https://youtu.be/oxllMGzp6gI

Stay tuned to the #IoT in Healthcare Blog series Bookmark this link to follow on the insights being shared by the experts on the HCITExpert Blog:
Author
Rajesh Batra

VP-IT at Kokilaben Dhirubai Ambani Hospital. Responsible for HIS, ERP implementation along with IT infrastructure initiatives and IT Operations and new IT initiatives.

Blog Series: #IoT in Healthcare by Manishree Bhattacharya @ManishreeBhatt1

/ OTHERS / 5 minutes of reading

The opportunity for #IoT in Healthcare is estimated to be $2.5 trillion by 2025. How are we embracing this change? The Types of Opportunities that present themselves to the Startups, Healthcare IT organisations are tremendous.

During the #PhilipsChat, on the 10th April 2017, we asked the experts what they thought about the current trends and focus areas that the IT Industry, Medical Device Manufacturers, Hospitals and Start-ups will need to keep in view, in the near and short-term, while making their organisation ready for the Digital Transformation that can be and will be enabled by #IoT in Healthcare.  
Presenting the insights shared by Manishree Bhattacharya (@ManishreeBhatt1) on #IoT in Healthcare

Q1: In the near term (1-3 years), What are the top 3 innovations in IoT that can benefit healthcare?
Manishree Bhattacharya: 1. Remote monitoring of (cardiac disorders, COPD, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, insomnia, diabetes, elderly, expecting mothers)
2. An integrated/connected surgical room, where devices are interoperable, regularly feeds in data into patient profile in EMR, to streamline post-operative care, both in the hospital and beyond, at patient homes
3. IoT for ensuring drug/treatment adherence, such as sensor-based pills
Q2. Do you see any device, connected via any protocol and with any cloud; as the future, if yes how will that be achieved? Standards?
Manishree Bhattacharya: Right now, developments are quite random and sporadic. To achieve larger goals, moving from connected devices to connected hospitals, some level of standardization and uniformity will be important to ensure an error-free, and secured transmission.
Q3: In India (or your country), what are the Digital Infrastructure requirements for enabling IoT based Innovations in Healthcare?
Manishree Bhattacharya: Seeing Digital Health take off in India in its full bloom is one of my wishes, and the preliminary requisite would be to encourage hospitals go paper-less – have EHR systems implemented, with a timeline set for nation-wide implementation. Just imagine how seamless healthcare delivery will be if primary, secondary and tertiary centres are integrated – data can seamlessly flow from one centre to another. Government has a very strong role to play here, that will help in creating the right infrastructure, timely adoption, establishing standards, lowering costs by promoting local manufacturing, and boosting HealthIT start-ups.
Q4. Please share use cases for Connected Care for: Healthy Living, Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment, Homecare:
Manishree Bhattacharya:
Healthy Living – Most consumer IoT devices aim to do that – tracking exercise regimes, diet plans
Prevention – Say a heart patient puts on a wearable device that continuously monitors and sends signals to nurses/doctors for any aberration – this can ensure timely treatment and prevent a severe episode.
Homecare – A person who has just had a surgery, and is on homecare – his regular vitals, diet plan, outputs are remotely being tracked by the doctor/nurse – who can selectively revise the diet or post-surgery recovery plan. Same goes with elderly who are on home-care.
Treatment – A sensor-based pill that sends a signal to a care-giver on ingestion of the pill.
The bigger purpose – We know that not all medicines work on every patient. Regularly tracking patients not only help in timely interventions, and more personalized treatments, it also opens routes to more clinical research on personalized medicines.
Q5: What are the Healthcare based Smart City components? How can Local, State and National Government’s make #IoT solutions in healthcare economically viable?
Manishree Bhattacharya: Answering to how can government make IoT solutions viable, my thoughts would be:
  1. By promoting indigenous manufacturing to curb costs

  2. Incentivising IoT adoption in hospitals
  3. Prioritizing HealthIT in the overall start-up agenda

Q6: How can private hospitals justify the RoI’s of Smart Hospital Components?
Manishree Bhattacharya: By improving quality of care; reducing hospital re-admissions, yet prolonging the care process that extends to one’s home; and finally improving patient engagement/adherence. A patient is more likely to visit a doctor who can provide a more personalized treatment than the one who cannot. Important would be define these key metrics/KPIs right at the beginning of implementation.

Q7. Tell us a 5 Year view of IoT in Healthcare and what would a Patient Experience be in a Smart Hospital?
Manishree Bhattacharya: First, we have to understand the purpose of IoT in healthcare – it is not there just for the sake of it, but to truly enable a coordinated and long-term care, that would eventually reduce mortality, morbidity, and hospital re-admissions. Patient experience is bound to improve. A patient will not have to run from one department to another, narrating the whole problem and showing multiple reports. So when a cancer in-patient enters a psychologist’s office, and the doctor already knows the problem, and also has the latest vitals of the patient right in his tablet, he knows that the patient was not able to get any sleep the previous night and has a high BP right now. The doctor would hence probably choose to talk about things that can ease the patient’s current situation. Now, that is truly an enriching experience.

Looking ahead in the future, we may also have AI-enabled voice assistants that will make a patient more comfortable in hospital settings.
Q8. Finally: What areas of IoT based innovations are you looking to partner with Startups for? Can you give us two areas?
Manishree Bhattacharya: Would love to connect with any start-up that can provide meaningful solutions for the Indian healthcare landscape. What I would also like to see is how these start-ups are using the tonnes of data that IoT devices generate, in deriving meaningful analysis – big data, AI, and so on.

References

  1. Here is the original Blog Post announcing the #PhilipsChat Tweetchat : http://blog.hcitexpert.com/2017/04/philipschat-on-iot-in-healthcare.html

  2. 3 ways in which Information Technology can improve healthcare in India by Manishree Bhattacharya (@ManishreeBhatt1) on NASSCOM Community

  2. IoT in India – The Next Big Wave by NASSCOM http://www.nasscom.in/iot-india-next-big-wave

  3. Curated list of Tweets from the #PhilipsChat: https://twitter.com/i/moments/852242427008233473
  4. Review the #PhilipsChat Transcript & analytics via @symplur here >> http://hcsm.io/2loNiv7

Stay tuned to the #IoT in Healthcare Blog series. Bookmark this link to follow on the insights being shared by the experts on the HCITExpert Blog:

http://blog.hcitexpert.com/search/label/IoT%20in%20Healthcare

Author
Manishree Bhattacharya

Manager – Research & Advisory at NASSCOM
Business professional with 7+ years of experience in research and advisory, across IT, healthcare, and medical technologies. At NASSCOM, responsible for identifying digital opportunities, driving thought leadership/innovation and delivering actionable insights for the Indian Technology Industry

Blog Series: #IoT in Healthcare by Dave Brown (@QiiQHealthcare)

/ OTHERS / 4 minutes of reading

The opportunity #IoT in Healthcare is estimated to be $2.5 trillion by 2025. How are we embracing this change? The Types of Opportunities that present themselves to the Startups, Healthcare IT organisations are tremendous.

We asked experts what they thought about the current trends and focus areas that the IT Industry, Medical Device Manufacturers, Hospitals and Startups will need to keep in view in the near and short-term while making their organisation ready for the Digital Transformation that can be and will be enabled by #IoT in Healthcare.  

Presenting the insights shared by Dave Brown (@QiiQHealthcare) on #IoT in Healthcare.

Q1: In the near term (1-3 years), What are the top 3 innovations in IoT that can benefit healthcare?:

Dave Brown: Great user-centered design; cheaper sensors; integration-friendly cloud services (including ML and AI).

Q2: Is an IoT based system going to be a utility or a service?:
Dave Brown: The UI -where the rubber meets the road- is a service. The software behind it is also a service. I can see some of the hardware elements and networking tech’y being a utility.

Q3. Do you see any device, connected via any protocol and with any cloud; as the future, if yes how will that be achieved? Standards?:
Dave Brown: More public exposure of performance metrics will incentivize QI and therefore innovation. Free-market competition (between innovators) will drive down costs. With this accelerated change, risk will rise – this can’t be avoided. However, reliability and data security standards will stabilise risk.


Q4: In India (or your country), what are the Digital Infrastructure requirements for enabling IoT based Innovations in Healthcare?:

Dave Brown: Not sure.  But to my previous answer – system reliability and security standards will help confidence levels for healthcare providers who are frightened of change.

Q5. How can hospitals leverage #IoT based solutions for service delivery and patient care? :
Dave Brown: Start with the big picture in mind; begin with small, measured implementations, and look for IMPACT.  Advance quickly as success metrics show up.

Q6: What are the aspects of Connected Care for the Patient Care Continuum
Dave Brown: Healthy Living, Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment & Home Care. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN WITHOUT PROGRESSIVE APPROACHES TO INTEGRATION. The future = API’s.

Q7. Please share usecases for Connected Care for: Healthy Living, Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment, Homecare:
Dave Brown: One simple picture: a FitBit user shares their data with their provider network; always-on data analysis (that also taps the user’s genomic data) triggers alerts when bad signs arise; then an automatic clinical response launches to address the issue before it becomes a serious problem. This process is AI-driven.

Q8: What are the Healthcare based Smart City components? How can Local, State and National Government’s make #IoT solutions in healthcare economically viable?:
Dave Brown: BIG question – hard to predict – creative and informed entrepreneurs will come up with many. I think these IoT solutions emerge from a vibrant startup community. Governments assist merely by creating incentives for the birth&growth of well-run startups, including spurring investment. They can also help round up healthcare executives and tech entrepreneurs to thoughtfully examine REAL problems and viable solutions (to save entrepreneurs from building solutions that no-one will buy and deploy).

Q9: How can private hospitals justify the RoI’s of Smart Hospital Components? :
Dave Brown: Similar answer as Q2a: start small and measure measure measure.

Q10: Give us a Buzzword we are going to be hearing regarding IoT based innovations in Healthcare.:
Dave Brown: Not sure.  How ’bout: “Smart API’s”

Q11. Tell us a 5 Year view of IoT in Healthcare and what would a Patient Experience in a Smart Hospital?:
Dave Brown: It’ll take more than 5 years for a real transformation to occur. But as I’ve already written, more good data (genomic + real-time consumer sensors) with strong AI will increase proactive community interventions, thus reducing the demand on urgent care.

Q12. Finally: What areas of IoT based innovations are you looking to partner with Startups for? Can you give us two areas?:
Dave Brown: We ARE a startup, committed to helping redesign workflow in urgent care.  We need to partner with companies contributing to acute care IT. We eventually need to integrate with community-care solutions to further improve the patient experience in moving from community care to acute care.

You can contact QiiQ Healthcare via their website: http://QiiQHealthcare.com
You can reach Dave via Twitter: @DaveBrutusBrown

References

  1. Here is the original Blog Post announcing the #PhilipsChat Tweetchat : http://blog.hcitexpert.com/2017/04/philipschat-on-iot-in-healthcare.html
  2. Curated list of Tweets from the #PhilipsChat: https://twitter.com/i/moments/852242427008233473
  3. Review the #PhilipsChat Transcript & analytics via @symplur here >> http://hcsm.io/2loNiv7

Stay tuned to the #IoT in Healthcare Blog series Bookmark this link to follow on the insights being shared by the experts on the HCITExpert Blog:

http://blog.hcitexpert.com/search/label/IoT%20in%20Healthcare

Author
Dave Brown

Co-Founder at QiiQ Healthcare, designer/engineer – perceptive, meticulous, smart and sensible
leader/entrepreneur – social, tenacious, visionary and realistic

With age, I’ve become a “big picture” guy, but I can and will roll up the sleeves….

I’ve led small and medium-sized user-facing technology projects: starting with strategy, and flowing right down to the detailed tactical level. I get the P&L picture, and am very comfortable driving execution.

Blog Series: #IoT in Healthcare by Srinivas Prasad M.R. @prsdsrnvs

/ OTHERS / 6 minutes of reading

The opportunity in #healthcare IoT is estimated to be $2.5 trillion by 2025. How are we embracing this change?

During the #PhilipsChat, on the 10th April 2017, we asked questions related to the current trends and focus areas that the Healthcare IT Industry, Medical Device Manufacturers, Hospitals and Startups will need to keep in view in the near and short-term while making their organisation ready for the Digital Transformation that can be and will be enabled by #IoT in Healthcare.
A great discussion ensued that has spawned this blog series. Presenting the insights shared by M. R. Srinivas Prasad (@prsdsrnvs) on #IoT in Healthcare #PhilipsChat. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._R._Srinivasaprasad)

Q1: In the near term (1-3 years), What are the top 3 innovations in IoT that can benefit healthcare?:
M. R. Srinivas Prasad: In the emerging markets the IOT devices that would play an important role in extending care to the homes and community, would be those that can enable remote monitoring of cardiac patients, COPD patients and pregnancy monitoring in the rural community. These devices could be devices like Connect diagnostic ECG, Low cost but reliable wearables to monitor basic vital signs and breathing patterns and connected intelligent fetal dopplers to help monitor the child during birth helped by midwives

Q2: Is an IoT based system going to be a utility or a service?:
M. R. Srinivas Prasad: This will be a mix of both. It can (also) be an Outcome-based pricing model which is a variant implementation of the Service Model.

Q3. Do you see any device, connected via any protocol and with any cloud; as the future, if yes how will that be achieved? Standards?:
M. R. Srinivas Prasad: Need to adhere to Continua standard for these devices for open connectivity but in the near term I see that cost will prevail over the interoperability standard if regulatory bodies don’t ensure conformance from the start.

Q4: In India (or your country), what are the Digital Infrastructure requirements for enabling IoT based Innovations in Healthcare?:
M. R. Srinivas Prasad: A change in the mindset of going from paper to paperless is needed. Then there is a need to educate hospitals “Software is not free”. In addition, enabling IoT will need reliable telecom networks, work with the ecosystem to set up datacenters. Maturity & innovation around commercial business models will be a need Supporting infrastructure like connected ambulances, trained paramedics & and efficient transportation system will help.

Q5. How can hospitals leverage #IoT based solutions for service delivery and patient care? :
M. R. Srinivas Prasad: Postoperative care can be shifted to the patient’s home. This can help free up beds in the hospital which can help in increase revenue to the hospital from a new patient. Hospital-acquired infections can be reduced and finally, in bringing down the cost of care, the benefit that can be extended to the patient.

Q6: What are the aspects of Connected Care for the Patient Care Continuum?
M. R. Srinivas Prasad: From Philips Healthcare point of view Connected care for the Patient Care Continuum comprises of Healthy Living, Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and Homecare. Here’s a video that explains these aspects https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe-KxiiIyNI

Q7. Please share usecases for Connected Care for: Healthy Living, Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment, Homecare:
M. R. Srinivas Prasad: (elaborated on each of the aspects of Connected Care for the Patient Care Continuum)
#HealthyLiving There are many in the market but it is important to choose the right one like the ones which are accurate e.g. Philips watch. Eating healthy food but tasty from an Indian cuisine context means fried food. Philips air fryer helps air fry tasty healthy food.

#Prevention Breathing Fresh & clean air is important for us to avoid pulmonary complications in countries like ours where pollution levels are high. #Philips Air Purifier helps address this issue

#Diagnosis Early diagnosis is critical to increase survival rate and reduce the cost of treatment. Use of AI in helping clinicians early diagnosis and also managing a larger population base can help solve the India challenges. Either for aiding in detection of infectious diseases like TB or identifying lesions from brain and breast scans.

#Treatment Minimally invasive devices are the key here . Low dose interventional X-ray systems or mobile surgery systems . Radiation planning systems which aid accurate and the right dose planning.

#HomeCare Monitoring of post cardiac patients and COPD patients at home. Philips Home Co business in india extends care into the home. This reduces cost of care and also helps the hospital to manage more new patients. Monitoring compliance to medication is another key aspect when extending care to home.

Q8: What are the Healthcare based Smart City components? How can Local, State and National Government’s make #IoT solutions in healthcare economically viable?:
M. R. Srinivas Prasad: Government should step in with policies that support in “giving the last mile connectivity” to decentralize healthcare (and) help in the convergence of Mobile technology, Consumer engagement and Payment reforms.
Additionally, Population management to understand disease profiling, to understand the spread of infectious diseases like malaria, typhoid etc. Smart ambulances. Garbage clearing monitoring. Air quality monitoring device across the city. Adequate availability of AED ‘s and accessible and connected. These are all related to health care.

Q9. How can private hospitals justify the RoI’s of Smart Hospital Components?
M. R. Srinivas Prasad: Demanding solutions from healthcare companies. Looking at OPEx models where the capex requirement is low. Productivity improvement from workflow efficiencies. Productivity gains or clinicians from using AI and smart tools. Better clinical decisions and patient re-admissions which will be enhance patient stickiness and also enhance the brand which will drive more patients to the hospital.

Q10. Tell us a 5 Year view of IoT in Healthcare and what would a Patient Experience in a Smart Hospital?M. R. Srinivas Prasad: A seamless experience which helps the hospital in its business, helps the clinicians make better decisions, helps patients by reducing their healthcare costs and the insurance providers become more efficient and manage their premiums better. A win win for all. Example from the onset of chest pain to early diagnosis, to emergency care, seamless patient data flow into the hospital EMR’s. Flow or patient context and information right through the various departments in the hospital including radiology, cardiology, critical care and also seamless extension of this care into home or the community post discharge and post operative care on remote care settings. A seamless experience in a distributed care environment

Q11. What areas of IoT based innovations are you looking to partner with Startups for? Can you give us two areas? M. R. Srinivas Prasad: Advanced AI models to aid early diagnosis of chronic diseases – Cardiac, COPD, Oncology and Mother and Child space. Smart IOT devices to support Monitoring of patients under various clinical conditions post discharge. Pregnancy monitoring and post natal care. Solutions in the healthcare informatics space and connect care solutions to help extend care into the community and homes

To one other question from Mr. NS Ramnath (@rmnth): On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you think the sensors in wearables in the market today stand?
M. R. Srinivas Prasad: “It’s in a very nascent stage but with a huge potential and key to help solve our healthcare challenges.”

Mr. M.R. Srinivas Prasad, signed-off from the chat by urging the participants, “let’s define the future of healthcare for a better India and a better world. Technology is key! Cheers”

References

  1. Here is the original Blog Post announcing the #PhilipsChat Tweetchat : http://blog.hcitexpert.com/2017/04/philipschat-on-iot-in-healthcare.html
  2. #IoT and #AI: Potent combo redefining healthcare by M. R Srinivas Prasad @prsdsrnvs on Livemint http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/iuOHAO5UCn1qzH2q5JwJvL/IoT-and-artificial-intelligence-Potent-combO-redefining-hea.html
  3. Curated list of Tweets from the #PhilipsChat: https://twitter.com/i/moments/852242427008233473
  4. Review the #PhilipsChat Transcript & analytics via @symplur here >> http://hcsm.io/2loNiv7
Author
M. R. Srinivas Prasad

CEO, Philips Innovation Campus, India

Blog Series: #IoT in Healthcare by Dr. Vikram @drvikram

/ OTHERS / 5 minutes of reading

The opportunity in #healthcare IoT is estimated to be $2.5 trillion by 2025. How are we embracing this change? The Types of Opportunities that present themselves to the Startups, Healthcare IT and Healthcare organisations are tremendous

During the #PhilipsChat, on the 10th April 2017, we asked the experts what they thought about the current trends and focus areas that the IT Industry, Medical Device Manufacturers, Hospitals and Startups will need to keep in view in the near and short-term while making their organisation ready for the Digital Transformation that can be and will be enabled by #IoT in Healthcare.

A great discussion ensued and that has spawned this blog series. Presenting the insights shared by Dr Vikram Venkateswaran (@drvikram) on #IoT in Healthcare #PhilipsChat.


Q1: In the near term (1-3 years), What are the top 3 innovations in IoT that can benefit healthcare?:
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran:
In my opinion, the immediate benefits are in areas where other industries have made progress: cheaper rates for Sensors, Increased security at device and sensor level. Additionally, an Increased integration of sensors and devices with EMR allowing for proactive interventions and remote monitoring for Chronic diseases.
Another aspect is Managing inventory and tagging assets are key for more hospitals, and i think that is an immediate benefit that will accrue.
To the question of, Do you think India will benefit from cheaper portable diagnostic devices or remote treatment a better stead ? asked by Divye Marwah; I would say, both patients and the hospitals will benefit.
Sukesh Kumar: Do you think #AI will help in taking healthcare to the next level?
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Its already happening in certain specialties like Oncology
Q2: Is an IoT based system going to be a utility or a service?
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Tricky one but I would say a service, with elements of a utility.

Ms. Manishree Bhattachar (@ManishreeBhatt1), Analyst with NASSCOM, “Do you think EHR implementation is a requisite, to go for a full bloom service+utility models for IoT devices?”

Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: I think so personally, without the full view of patient history, proactive intervention; depends on the care priorities for the Hospital.

Q3. Do you see any device, connected via any protocol and with any cloud; as the future, if yes how will that be achieved? Standards?:

Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: That is one of the biggest challenges today, EMR integration with IoT devices for example Wearables, remote pacemakers, Bionic Limbs, lenses with ability to monitor sugar levels and Blood Pressure.

Q4: In India (or your country), what are the Digital Infrastructure requirements for enabling IoT based Innovations in Healthcare?:

Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Network connectivity and availability of LE sensors is the key, Most healthcare systems are still on paper records, Patient education is the key as well, massive change in perception is required.

Q5. How can hospitals leverage #IoT based solutions for service delivery and patient care? :
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Health Checks, remote health monitoring as a service, pro active intervention as a service

Q6: What are the aspects of Connected Care for the Patient Care Continuum?
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Interoperability and adherence of standards, increased communication, Change in perception of patients and hospitals

Q7. Please share usecases for Connected Care for: Healthy Living, Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment, Homecare:
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Remote monitoring of cardiac pacemakers,  monitoring of blood glucose, Sweat analysis for athletes, Sleep monitoring for patients and athletes

Q8: What are the Healthcare based Smart City components? How can Local, State and National Government’s make #IoT solutions in healthcare economically viable?:
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Disease Surveillance, Leveraging weather data to predict disease patterns, Population health management

Q9: How can private hospitals justify the RoI’s of Smart Hospital Components? :
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Hospitals can prioritise understanding disease patterns

Q10: Give us a Buzzword we are going to be hearing regarding IoT based innovations in Healthcare.:
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Smart Care, Home Healthcare, Remote Health Monitoring, Home Health, Connected care, Connected Health

Q11. Tell us a 5 Year view of IoT in Healthcare and what would a Patient Experience in a Smart Hospital?:
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Hospitals to focus on critical care, emergencies and palliative care. Regular check ups and follow ups to be conducted leveraging IoT

Q12. Finally: What areas of IoT based innovations are you looking to partner with Startups for? Can you give us two areas?:
Dr Vikram Venkateswaran: Disease Surveillance, Home Healthcare

References

  1. Here is the original Blog Post announcing the #PhilipsChat Tweetchat : http://blog.hcitexpert.com/2017/04/philipschat-on-iot-in-healthcare.html
  2. #IoT and #AI: Potent combo redefining healthcare by M. R Srinivas Prasad @prsdsrnvs on Livemint http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/iuOHAO5UCn1qzH2q5JwJvL/IoT-and-artificial-intelligence-Potent-combO-redefining-hea.html
  3. Join the #Philipschat on Twitter #IoT in #Healthcare on Monday 10th April 2017, 3 PM – Health Care in India http://healthcare-in-india.net/healthcare-technology/join-the-philipschat-on-twitter-iot-in-healthcare-on-monday-10th-april-2017-3-pm/
  4. Curated list of Tweets from the #PhilipsChat: https://twitter.com/i/moments/852242427008233473
  5. Review the #PhilipsChat Transcript & analytics via @symplur here >> http://hcsm.io/2loNiv7
  6. #IoT & #AI – A potent combination redefining healthcare event by @PhilipsBlore moderated by @drvikram https://youtu.be/6cpeICKV9Fw

Stay tuned to the #IoT in Healthcare Blog Series Bookmark this link to follow on the insights being shared by the experts on the HCITExpert Blog:

Team @HCITExperts [Updated: 29th May 2016]
Author

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[content title=”About Dr. Vikram Venkateswaran”]

Dr. Vikram Venkateswaran

Dr Vikram Venkateswaran is a healthcare thought leader who writes and speaks about the emerging healthcare models in India and the role technology plays in them.
Connect with me

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[content title=”Latest Articles”]

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#PhilipsChat on #IoT in Healthcare with @prsdsrnvs and @drvikram

/ OTHERS / 5 minutes of reading

87% of healthcare organizations will have adopted Internet of Things technology

Internet of Things (IoT) in Healthcare, or Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) are seeing an increasing adoption rate in Healthcare Organisations. In a recent study the following statistics were part of the report: [1]

 1. 60% of healthcare organizations have already introduced IoT into their infrastructure 

 2. In just two years, 87% of healthcare organizations will have adopted Internet of Things technology.

 3. The most common area where IoT is being utilized is for patient monitoring and maintenance. 73% of surveyed healthcare executives said they used IoT in this area, while 42% said this was the main use for IoT. 

 4. 64% of respondents said they use IoT for patient monitors, 56% use IoT for energy meters, and 33% use IoT for imaging devices.

 5. 80% of healthcare executives said IoT has improved innovation, 

 6. 76% said visibility across their organization has improved, while 73% said they have enjoyed cost savings following the introduction of IoT.

 7. 57% of respondents believe workflow productivity will improve as a result of the adoption of IoT, resulting in considerable cost savings. 

 8. 36% believe IoT will create new business models, while 27% said the use of IoT technology would improve collaboration with colleagues and patients.


 And here is an #Infographic: IoT in Healthcare: Types of Opportunities, I think it will be apt to share the same with you at this time to review the market opportunity. 

 The study however also highlighted the disadvantages to introducing IoT. Such as security risks, with healthcare organisations facing many cases of breaches in the past year. 
The report pointed out, 89% of healthcare organizations that have adopted IoT said they have suffered a security breach as a result, while 49% said malware was an issue.

 Coming to the Tweetchat!! I am honored to be considered for hosting the tweetchat with Mr. Srinivas Prasad, CEO, Philips Innovation Campus, in India and Dr. Vikram, Founder and Editor of Healthcare India.



Mr. Srinivas Prasad (@prsdsrnvs), has over 3 decades of experience with various Technology companies. Prior to his current assignment, Prasad was Vice President-IT at FMR India, a leading US Multinational in Bangalore. He has also established and served as General Manager for the Software Architecture Division of Sony in India.

Earlier in his career Prasad worked for Alcatel Business Systems in France and Indian Telephone Industries in various capacities, leading teams in developing telecom products for the Indian and Global markets. Before his current role as CEO-PIC, he headed the Healthcare division at PIC as Sr. Director.

Prasad has an outstanding academic record and holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communication and a Masters in Business Administration.

Having a unique distinction of being a Hindu Hitachi Scholar, he has published papers at the Telecom IEEE conferences. Prasad has worked in Japan and France earlier in his career. He has been part of several national committees in India including the CII taskforce to drive Broadband adoption in India.

An ardent cricket enthusiast he has played for Karnataka state, South Zone and represented the Country earlier in his career. Read more about Prasad and his achievements at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._R._Srinivasaprasad.


Dr. Vikram Venkateswaran
(@drvikram)
Dr. Vikram Venkateswaran is a healthcare management thinker, speaker and author. He is also the founding editor of Healthcare India. He started his career as a dental surgeon running a chain of dental clinics in New Delhi. He has an MBA from IMT Ghaziabad and has worked with healthcare systems in India, US and Europe.

On April 10th, 2017 between 3 – 4pm IST, I would like to welcome all experts to share their thoughts and insights with Mr. Srinivas Prasad and Dr. Vikram  on how to leverage IoT in Healthcare.

Agenda for #PhilipsChat : #IoT for Healthcare

Q1: In the near term (1-3 years), What are the top 3 innovations in IoT that can benefit healthcare?

Q2: Is an IoT based system going to be a utility or a service?

Q3. Do you see any device, connected via any protocol and with any cloud as the future, if yes how will that be achieved? Standards?

Q4: In India, what are the Digital Infrastructure requirements for enabling IoT based Innovations in Healthcare? 

Q5. How can hospitals leverage IoT based solutions for service delivery and patient care? 

Q6: What are the aspects of Connected Care for the Patient Care Continuum (tell us about one solution each that can benefit consumers)

> Healthy Living
> Prevention
> Diagnosis
> Treatment
> Homecare


Q7: What are the Healthcare based Smart City components? How can Local, State and Indian Government’s make IoT solutions in healthcare economically viable?

Q8: How can private hospitals justify the RoI’s of Smart Hospital Components? 

Q9: Give us a Buzzword we are going to be hearing regarding IoT based innovations in Healthcare.

CT: (Closing Thoughts) Tell us a 5 Year view of IoT in Healthcare and what would a Patient Experience in a Smart Hospital?

Signoff: And everyone’s favourite question of the Tweetchat, What areas of IoT based innovations are you looking to partner with Startups for? Can you give us two areas?

To participate, just log onto your twitter account on mobile, web or tablet on 10th April Between 3-4pm, as mentioned earlier and tweet with the hashtag: #PhilipsChat 

Transcript of the #PhilipsChat

References

  1. 87pc Healthcare Organisations to Adopt Internet of Things Technology by 2019
  1. #Infographic: IoT in Healthcare, Types of Opportunities http://blog.hcitexpert.com/2016/05/infographic-iot-in-healthcare-opportunities.html
  2. The Current Status of 8 Future Technologies on Healthcare by @msharmas http://blog.hcitexpert.com/2016/09/the-current-status-of-8-future-technologies.html

Author

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Manish Sharma

Founder HCITExpert.com, Digital Health Entrepreneur

Connect with me via any of my Social Media Channels

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Patient Satisfaction: IoT Enabled patient pathway by Arnab Paul, @iArnabPaul

/ OTHERS / 5 minutes of reading

They may forget your name, but they may never forget how you made them feel… Maya Angelou

Patient satisfaction is not a clearly defined concept, although it is identified as an important quality outcome indicator to measure success of the services delivery system

 Ever since the Institute of Medicine’s 2001 ‘Crossing the Quality Chasm’ report codified patientcenteredness as one of six health care quality aims, patient-centered care has gained footing within the landscape of health care reform. There is no consensus between the literatures on how to define the concept of patient satisfaction in healthcare. In Donabedian’s quality measurement model, patient satisfaction is defined as patient-reported outcome measure while the structures and processes of care can be measured by patient-reported experiences




 Many of our Linkedin friends would concur that even if we run a million dollar enterprise and have a fairly good experience on dealing with stressful situations in our everyday business life but when it comes to visiting the hospital we get cold feet – because of the element of unforeseen and unexpectedness of the entire process that we have to undertake and on top of that we as a patient community do not have a collective voice and it makes matters worse.

 I believe we have a tremendous potential as a nation provided that we as a provider and receiver of healthcare services are on the same page, though it is easier said than done.Patient who visits a hospital is looking for value on investment (VOI) and the Provider is looking for return on investment (ROI). Healthcare providers have their limitations, financial and otherwise — but at least they are doing their bit and performing reasonably well. Since they have fixed resources at their disposal – the only thing humanly possible for them is resource optimization.

 In India, we have already missed the bus when it comes to patient satisfaction surveys unlike our western counterparts. For everything in life we need some kind of metrics, some tools to measure the clinical outcome and the patient satisfaction. So to make up for it may I suggest we incorporate Tech enabled, IoT optimized patient feedback mechanism.

 Various Accreditation bodies like NABH, NABL, CAP, JCI and ISO are functioning in the healthcare domain but these are mostly voluntary, these accreditations are a reflection that the entity has undergone high quality of audit in its internal departments, but does it say anything about the patient satisfaction or patient engagement, the answer is a big NO. In India, one could safely bet that 90% of the patients visiting the hospitals do not have the foggiest notion of what do these accreditation means, entities need to think beyond certifications and accreditation, entities need to educate people, create more awareness among the stakeholders specially the patient community, they ought to let the world know that these organizations have the benchmark this will inspire confidence in the patient community.

 So in a truly democratic healthcare system the patient ought to have a voice and a mechanism in place just to ensure that his voice his heard and above all accreditation agencies must also factor in the patient voice.

 Few days back I got a very interesting email from someone who heads the ‎Clinical Transformation and Analytics, Clinical Technology and Patient Safety Innovations at a Super Speciality, New Delhi, she enquired about the tech solutions that could be put in place to enhance the patients positive experience,it so heartening to note that the providers are seriously interested in improving the patients experience and by and large I presume most of the providers do want to improve the patients experience.

 So what is the solution, how do we propose to go about it, well unlike Press Ganey & HCAPHS, I don’t know of any organization in India working towards the goal of providing patient satisfaction survey. Press Ganey has stated that a minimum of 30 survey responses is necessary to draw meaningful conclusions from the data it receives and that it will not stand behind statistical analysis when less than 30 responses are received. The entities mentioned above are highly detailed paper based patient feedback mechanism, in this time and age we need to think digital, think ahead.

 If we go digital & truly real time in the patient feedback mechanism it would greatly enhance the whole patient experience and maybe help to manage solve some of the issues in real time. Wouldn’t it be just great if we incorporate IoT’s in the patient feedback loop, we wouldn’t have to wait for 30 odd surveys to be analyzed we could just go ahead and fix the situation right away if it warrants an action. 

The article was first published in Mr. Arnab Paul’s LInkedIn pulse page, it has been re-published here with the author’s permission
Author

[tab]
[content title=”About Arnab Paul”]

Arnab Paul, CEO, Patient Planet

Globally-minded systems thinker, action-oriented and inspired toward optimizing health outcomes through innovation, creativity, cooperation. Passionate about facilitating the alignment among technology, people and processes to ultimately improve patient experience and the functioning of healthcare.

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Putting patients at the heart of IoT in India, By Arnab Paul, @iArnabPaul

/ OTHERS / 4 minutes of reading

Patients are the most important stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem and that they should be empowered to make informed choices.

In a broader sense, the “patient pathway” is the route that a patient will take from their first contact with a healthcare provider or a member of staff, through referral, to the completion of their treatment. It also covers the period from entry into a hospital or a Treatment Centre, until the patient leaves.


 In healthcare, there already exists whole gamut of technologies in various states of maturity – wearable devices that are perhaps not yet ready to be used as clinical-grade, beta-versions of monitoring devices, inventory tracking systems already being utilized in hospital operations, etc. The innovations we will see in the coming years will push these to new heights and give health system operations the opportunity to be leaders in adoption of the connected world empowered by the internet of things. Willingness to explore the opportunities presented by this world will be the differentiator between those who leverage the capabilities for optimization and those who stick to what’s been just good enough so far.

 Internet of Things (IoT) refers to any physical object embedded with technology capable of exchanging data and is pegged to create a more efficient healthcare system in terms of time, energy and cost. One area where the technology could prove transformative is in healthcare. The potential of IoT to impact healthcare is wide ranging. We’ve already seen an increasing movement towards fitness tracking wearables over the last few years. Imagine a world where your vital signs were being constantly monitored and fed back to your healthcare professional.

 Many of us who advocate LEAN in Healthcare, we know that lean stands for removing all that is not required, Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A lean organization understands customer value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste. The core idea of lean involves determining the value of any given process by distinguishing value added steps from non-value-added steps, and eliminating waste so that ultimately every step adds value to the process. To maximize value and eliminate waste, leaders in health care, as in other organizations, must evaluate processes by accurately specifying the value desired by the user; identifying every step in the process (or “value stream,” in the language of lean) and eliminating non-value-added steps, and making value flow from beginning to end based on the pull — the expressed needs — of the customer/patient. When applied rigorously and throughout an entire organization, lean principles can have a dramatic affect on productivity, cost, and quality.

 With the deployment of IoT in healthcare it would enhance the scope of monitoring patients response, since huge zettabytes of data are going to be generated from the many monitoring sensors, if we are somehow able to remove the noise and work on the intelligence derived from it, and if we could somehow wed the intelligent data derived from IoT with the LEAN/ SIX SIGMA tools it would greatly enhance the quality of the patient care pathway. We would be able to do a better job of mapping his entire journey and improve on the patient e care pathway.

 IoT in itself wouldn’t be a big help unless the information that is obtained from the sensors and other embedded systems are not synced with data analytics.

 These are exciting times for Healthcare Delivery system, after proper deployment of sensors and by the optimum use of other remote monitoring system, suffice to say monetizing the data generated by the IoT would be the principle driver for enterprises and small businesses alike in years to come.

The article was first published in Mr. Arnab Paul’s LInkedIn pulse page, it has been re-published here with the author’s permission
Author

[tab]
[content title=”About Arnab Paul”]

Arnab Paul, CEO, Patient Planet

Globally-minded systems thinker, action-oriented and inspired toward optimizing health outcomes through innovation, creativity, cooperation. Passionate about facilitating the alignment among technology, people and processes to ultimately improve patient experience and the functioning of healthcare.

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Challenges and Promise of #IoT in Healthcare by Arnab Paul, @iArnabPaul

/ OTHERS / 3 minutes of reading

A critical path to improving healthcare efficiency is to shift focus from acute care to early intervention. Remote patient monitoring technologies would be just a small cog in the wheel of Connected health

The ‘internet’ of people changed the world well there’s a new internet emerging and it’s poised to change the world again this new internet is not just about connecting people it’s about connecting things and so it’s named the Internet of Things.


 Ok so connecting things to the internet big deal right well it kind of is and here’s why because things can start to share their experiences with other things, you take things and then you add the ability to sense and communicate and touch and control and there you get an opportunity for things to interact and collaborate with other things so think of it like this, we as human beings, we interact and contribute and collaborate with other people in our own environment through our five senses we are seeing and smelling and in touch and taste and hearing, right well imagine things with the ability to sense and to touch and then add the than ability to communicate and that’s where the internet of people and the internet of things intersect. I believe like the internet revolution, IoT opportunity is transformative. 

 However there are few challenges   Some of the challenges that I can think of is like the interoperability issues of different software programs we do have an issue of  Heterogeneity of sensors and networks also last mile gap in delivering quality of service & Security with regard to  Privacy and Governance.

 Broadly Challenges could be categorized under

 Integration:  Gadgets & Devices
The diversity of devices in the networks is another obstacle for the successful implementation of IoT in healthcare.  The problem lies in the fact that the device manufacturers do not have an agreed-upon set of communication protocols and standards. The lack of uniformity among the connected medical devices also significantly reduces the opportunities of scaling the use of IoT in healthcare.

 Security: Data Transmissions at risk
The main concern for regulatory bodies and users alike is, of course, the security of personal health information that is stored and transmitted by the connected devices. Strict access controls are required to ensure compliance with healthcare regulations.

 Analytics : Data insights
Even though the process of collecting and aggregating data comes with complications, healthcare IoT is responsible for accumulating massive amounts of valuable data it can be used to benefit the patients, however deriving the insights from immense amounts of data is problematic without sophisticated analytics programs and data professionals.

 A critical path to improving healthcare efficiency is to shift focus from acute care to early intervention. Remote patient monitoring technologies would be just a small cog in the wheel of Connected health. Health and fitness monitoring will precede patient monitoring as the driver for IoT solutions in healthcare. IoT in healthcare holds great promise for the coming generations because it could just transform the quality of life of the aging population. IoT could feel a bit intrusive  at times for the current generations, but looking at the trends it would help the millennials and the aging populations both get really helpful insight about the status of their health and act upon them.

The article was first published in Mr. Arnab Paul’s LinkedIn Pulse post. The article is reproduced here with the authors permission.  

Author

[tab]
[content title=”About Arnab Paul”]

Arnab Paul, CEO, Patient Planet

Globally-minded systems thinker, action-oriented and inspired toward optimizing health outcomes through innovation, creativity, cooperation. Passionate about facilitating the alignment among technology, people and processes to ultimately improve patient experience and the functioning of healthcare.

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Healthcare IoT Strategy for Entrants & Incumbents by Arnab Paul, @iArnabPaul

/ OTHERS / 3 minutes of reading

The long-predicted IoT revolution in healthcare is already underway, as new use cases continue to emerge to address the urgent need for affordable, accessible care

We are still running around, jumping in the puddle of data mining and other data insights when we are hit by this new wave called ‘Internet of Things” . Typically in the healthcare system the  patients dont really care what sensors will record and transmit and to whom and to where and whether it follows the standard protocol, what they really care about is whether they will be able to get well soon and how this IoT is going to help him have a better quality of life and how soon that would happen.  

Similarly the providers dont care about the tons of data that will be accessible to him, he would be more eager to know the intelligent real time information that would help him diagnose any ailment. However, at the moment, the health monitors, wearables remain largely outside typical care channels. 

One common IoT-enabled wellness monitor, for example, creates, transmits, analyzes, and stores data—but in a database not linked to, and incompatible with, traditional health records.  However useful, the information is unavailable or even unknown to doctors unless patients volunteer it—and, indeed, physically bring it to a visit. There is a gridlock in the flow of information at the aggregate stage. 

Alleviating that gridlock—and integrating prevention and wellness monitors with existing electronic health-records systems—is key to taking full advantage of IoT-enabled devices’ capabilities and keeping people healthier longer. Established health care IT companies, will no doubt find these new business models threatening, considering the new entrants eager to join the fight for customer value.  It is critical that IoT Companies deliberately identify how IoT technology fits into their existing products and strategies, and enables the delivery of transformational innovation. 

Simply using the IoT to enable innovation is unlikely to create sustainable advantage.  Companies should identify areas of high unmet needs and clearly articulate the value they will deliver for their customers. Development should begin with a specific use case in mind and a clear vision of how each stage in the Information cycle will contribute to addressing customer needs. Strategy to access capabilities through in-house development, acquiring companies, or partnering will be necessary. 

In all cases, whether entrant or incumbent, the IoT strategy should be built from an understanding of which care settings and which gridlock the entity seeks to alleviate.  From there, choices as to whether to focus on the setting or the stage of the gridlock will determine the appropriate business model. 

The long-predicted IoT revolution in healthcare is already underway, as new use cases continue to emerge to address the urgent need for affordable, accessible care. 

The article was first published in Mr. Arnab Paul’s LinkedIn Pulse post. The article is reproduced here with the authors permission.  

Author

[tab]
[content title=”About Arnab Paul”]

Arnab Paul, CEO, Patient Planet

Globally-minded systems thinker, action-oriented and inspired toward optimizing health outcomes through innovation, creativity, cooperation. Passionate about facilitating the alignment among technology, people and processes to ultimately improve patient experience and the functioning of healthcare.

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Healthcare #IoT, what the future holds by Arnab Paul, @iArnabPaul

/ Uncategorized / 4 minutes of reading

Things in healthcare, its popularity is undeniably on the rise in other industries

The world is continuously growing and changing. Various advancements have also occurred when it comes to the technology used in rendering healthcare services. Thus, there is no doubt that the healthcare industry has improved in the last decade but what are some of those improvements.  

The technology has also played a big role in patient registration and data monitoring. Before, people need to go seek a doctor and visit them personally for a consultation but now, it is very much possible for them to consult a doctor in the convenience of their own homes by allowing them to talk with their doctor through a video chat, as Telehealth has been introduced. 

Apart from that, there are also technologies that allow a healthcare provider to monitor their patients in their own mobile phones. It’s not only that for they are also now capable of sending and receiving patient’s information in their mobile phones as well. All of these have been made possible, as wireless connectivity exists. 

Devices that can help monitor one’s health of the one wearing it have also been highly available in the market.  As a matter of fact, there are even sensors that are capable of collecting data that would of course help their doctor be informed in case there is something abnormal with their patients. This allows them to provide the right medication and treatment to their patients fast. On the other hand, although great improvements have been made in the healthcare industry, one can still expect that a brighter future awaits in the next years or decades.  

Within five years, the majority of clinically relevant data will be collected outside of clinical settings. It has been said that healthcare in the future would become more personal. Thus, one can expect that personalized medicines or medicines that have been created specifically for an individual would be available. The way doctors diagnoses their patient’s disease and provides treatment to them would also be changed as data would become more accessible in the future, combined with the use of more hi-tech devices. As more people are being conscious of their health, one can expect that more tools and equipment would be available in the future.

Internet of Things

in the IoT paradigm everything in the world is considered as a smart object, and allows them to communicate each other through the internet technologies by physically or virtually. IoT allows people and things to be connected Anytime, Anyplace, with anything and anyone, by using ideally in any path/network and any service.Internet of Things could be the driver for health care’s new visage and revolutionize patient care transcendentally. Few ways how IoT can be used in healthcare industry  

1) Remote patient monitoring

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) uses digital technologies to collect medical and other forms of health data from one individual in one location and electronically transmit this information to the health care providers. RPM can help reduce the number of hospital readmissions and lengths of stay in the hospitals. 

2) Clinical care

Hospitalised patients whose physiological status requires close attention can be constantly monitored using IoT driven, non-invasive monitoring. Sensors are used to collect such information and using cloud to analyse data and then send this analysed data to caregivers. It replaces the need for the doctor to visit the patient during regular intervals for check up. This will also help to improve the quality of care through constant monitoring.

3) Device monitoring

An IoT connected device metal device can notify when there is a problem with a device.  This will prevent the device from shutting down and avoid patient rescheduling.

4) Outpatient Monitoring

This IoT solution enables doctors to capture health parameters and advice patients remotely. The patient’s hospital visit is therefore limited and needs to visit only on need basis. This solution helps hospitals manage hospital beds and consequently increase revenues while at the same time delighting customers.  

Although, IoT implementations will likely raise concerns around data privacy and security. While most of today’s devices use secure methods to communication information to the cloud, they could still be vulnerable to hackers. 

While we have yet to see a huge number of adopters of the Internet of Things in healthcare, its popularity is undeniably on the rise in other industries.

The article was first published in Mr. Arnab Paul’s LinkedIn Pulse post. The article is reproduced here with the authors permission. 

Author

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[content title=”About Arnab Paul”]

Arnab Paul, CEO, Patient Planet

Globally-minded systems thinker, action-oriented and inspired toward optimizing health outcomes through innovation, creativity, cooperation. Passionate about facilitating the alignment among technology, people and processes to ultimately improve patient experience and the functioning of healthcare.

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The Current Status of 8 Future Technologies on Healthcare by @msharmas

/ #DIGITALHEALTH / 10 minutes of reading

It’s mid-2016, and here is a look at the current status of 8 Future Technologies that might be having a significant impact on Healthcare

Most if not all these technologies will make an impact on Healthcare, and hence it is important to understand the various scenarios and the stories detailing how the experts from across the world are incorporating these technologies in healthcare


1 Internet of Things

By 2020, there are expected to be 50B IoT devices with a total economic impact of $3.9Trillion – $11.0Trillion across all the industries, out of which $1.6 trillion impact in the “Human” segment.

Experts have identified the various areas in Healthcare, where IoT-based solutions can be implemented in healthcare. 

  • IoT refers to any physical object embedded with technology capable of exchanging data and is pegged to create a more efficient healthcare system in terms of time, energy and cost.
  • Dr. Vikram in his article on how IoT can transform healthcare opined the benefits of remote patient monitoring in emergency cases
  • Dr. Pankaj Gupta, noted in his article for IoT-based solutions to be aggregators of healthcare data from primary, secondary and supporting care market will begin to be aggregated. It will be in the interest of Insurance, Pharma and Govt to support IoT driven Healthcare Market Aggregation
Digital Health startups are working on the following categories as showcased in The Map of Healthcare IoT: 

  • Clinical efficiency, 
  • clinical grade biometric sensors/ wearables, 
  • consumer home monitoring, 
  • brain sensors/ neurotechnology, 
  • fitness wearables, 
  • sleep monitoring and infant monitoring

IoT platforms need to be created to ensure the utilization of data being generated by the IoT devices deployed in healthcare. Absence of platforms to aggregate IoT device data will result in loss of meaningful and contextual insights being drawn for the patients’ conditions.
 
Here is an Infographic, by Team HCITExperts, IoT in Healthcare, Types of Opportunities

2 Augmented Reality

Pokemon Go happened and augmented reality has triggered the imaginations of the innovators to work on bringing the technology to Healthcare

By 2020, an IDC report states AR – VR revenue will hit $162Billion by offering major applications for healthcare and product design.

In a recently concluded Intel developer conference, Microsoft’s Windows chief Terry Myerson announced a partnership with the chip maker that will make all future Windows 10 PCs able to support mixed reality applications.

For instance, Live 3D imaging is one of the hottest topics in optics today, transforming medical imaging capabilities and delivering the immersive experience behind augmented and virtual reality.  

Tim Cook in a recent interview indicated Augmented Reality to be a bigger market than virtual reality.

3 Virtual Reality

With VR technology projections reaching $3.8Billion by 2020, there will be an increase in the use of VR technologies in Healthcare

Virtual reality has an increasing number of implementation opportunities in Healthcare for education, training and patient treatment.

While the cost of using VR in healthcare is still something that needs to be dealt with, partnerships like the one with Intel and Microsoft only bodes well for bringing the technology mainstream and be cost effective.

VR tech is currently being used to 

  • virtually zoom around the patient’s brain to pinpoint an aneurism before the operation. 
  • 3D virtual renderings of the patient’s anatomy lets physicians get a very real experience before operating on the patient
  • the Virtual Reality is being used to present the patient a virtual human agent that replicates a Doctor & Patient communication, where patients can get their questions answered in an environment free from judgement
  • train surgeons how to use new or unfamiliar devices
  • presenting medical images such CT-Scans and MRIs as 3D renderings for improved accuracy of diagnosis 
  • and as an alternative treatment for seniors

4 Blockchain 
Interoperability in Healthcare is a big topic for debate and a sore unsolved puzzle. With the US HHS and ONC seeking research on Blockchain for Healthcare, there seems to be growing interest in the technology. 

For instance, “By combining the blockchain with the peer-to-peer business model, this creates the potential for a near-autonomous self-regulated insurance business model for managing policy and claims. No single entity would control the network. Policyholders could “equally” control the network on a pro-rata basis” 
– Cyrus Maaghul in Why out of hospital Blockchains matter

Blockchain technology is being researched to be the super secure healthcare data aggregator of EHR data and IoT devices data

 Blockchain technology is supposed to benefit healthcare 

  • in population health and clinical studies, 
  • interoperability, 
  • patient centricity, 
  • security,
  • supply chain management 
  • Merck has already announced its exploring the use of Blockchain technology for clinical trials. For instance, if a patient is enrolled for multiple clinical trials, a single blood test common to all the clinical trials needs to be done only once and can be shared across the clinical trial studies the patient has enrolled for.
  • In a recently concluded challenge, ONC in the US announced 15 winners for the use of Blockchain in Healthcare

5 Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence has been a topic of research all these years, but with the advent of the Data Age, Artificial Intelligence is fast moving mainstream and presents a viable business opportunity. 

“By 2025, AI systems could be involved in everything from population health management, to digital avatars capable of answering specific patient queries.” — Harpreet Singh Buttar, analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

In a recently published report, AI adoption by enterprises is imminent. 38% of respondents are already using AI, another 28% will adopt it by 2018. 

The AI ecosystem is projected to be worth $5.5Billion by 2020

Artificial Intelligence ecosystem consists of:

  • Deep Learning

  • Evidence Based

  • Machine Learning Systems

  • Prescriptive Analytics

  • Natural Language Generation

  • NLP/ Text Mining

  • Predictive Analytics

  • Recommendation Engines

Artificial Intelligence has already started making its way into healthcare, with 90+ AI startups getting funding to deliver solutions like; 

  • helping the oncologist define the best treatment plan specific to each patient
  • a virtual nursing assistants, to follow-up with patients post discharge
  • drug discovery platforms, for new therapies
  • Medical Imaging and diagnostics 
  • The use of AI in diagnosing diseases, patient education and reducing hospital costs
  • You can also find a great discussion on machine learning, wherein how machine learning could replace/ augment doctors via the health standards podcast with Fred Trotter.

Some of the other areas where AI is being implemented in Healthcare. Microsoft, Apple, IBM and other major players are all looking to AI help in curing people. And they are forming a group that creates the standard of ethics for the development of AI.

Finally have a look at the AI in healthcare: Category Heatmap

Source: CBINSIGHTS


6 3D Printing 
3D Printing in Healthcare is making fast inroads in many disruptive ways. The projected market size for 3D Printing in Healthcare as suggested in the IDC report:

“Global revenues for the 3D printing market are expected to reach $US35.4 Billion by 2020, more than double the %US15.9 Billion in revenues forecast for 2016.

This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.1 percent over the 2015-2020 forecast period, IDC research reports that while 3D printers and materials will represent nearly half the total worldwide revenues throughout the forecast, software and related services will also experience significant growth”

Gartner expanded the number of profiles from 16 in 2014, to 37 technology and service profiles in their latest Hype Cycle for 3D Printing 

3D Printing in Healthcare is being used in the following ways: 

  • 3D Printing and Surgery. All surgical and interventional procedures with complex pathology, extensive resection and/or extensive reconstructions could benefit from this technology: Orthopedics, Cardiovascular, Otorhinolaryngology, Abdominal, Oncology and Neurosurgery.
  • A bespoke 3D Printed model of the patient’s forearm changed the standard course of a 4 hour surgery to a 30 min less evasive soft tissue procedure
  • Affordable prosthetics
  • the FDA has touted the use of 3D Printing in personalised medicine, ans has already cleared 85 medical devices and one prescription drug manufactured by 3D Printing.

Researchers are also exploring the use of 3D Printing which could come mainstream in the future such as Printing prescription drugs at home, Synthetic skin, 3D Printing and replacing body parts.

7 Drones

Last year in a conference a researcher proposed the use of Drones for delivering healthcare in much the same way Katniss receives medicine in the Hunger Games movie or for that matter in the movie Bourne Legacy, UAVs are shown to retrieve the blood samples of Jeremy Renner.

The worldwide market for drones is $6.8 billion anticipated to reach $36.9 billion by 2022

Similarly, there is an active interest in the use of drones to be monitoring traffic, to delivering pizza and products ordered online. 

 In context of Healthcare, UAVs are being field tested for transporting samples and blood supplies, medical drone manufacturer Vayu is using UAVs to deliver cutting edge medical technology in Madagascar. In Rwanda, estimated 325 pregnant women per 100,000 die each year, often from postpartum hemorrhage. Many of these deaths are preventable if they receive transfusion via drone delivery in a timely manner. 

In India, Fortis hospital plans on using drones during Heart Transplants, to cut the travel time and save lives. An estimated 500, 000 are in need for organ transplants in a year in India.

Drones & UAVs are also being tested for delivering emergency medical supplies during accidents and natural disasters.

8 Robotics

Robotics in healthcare has been used for sometime now, for instance the Da Vinci surgery system is being used for a myriad of surgeries. 

 Just the other day i came across an article on robots being used for some of the tasks at the reception of the hospital.

“Cloud robotics can be viewed as a convergence of information, learned processes, and intelligent motion or activities with the help of the cloud,” the report explains. “It allows to move the locus of ‘intelligence’ from onboard to a remote service.” – Frost and Sullivan report on Cloud Robotics.

The overall world market for robotics in healthcare will reach $3,058m in 2015, and expand further to 2025.

The global robotics industry will expand from $34.1 billion in 2016 to $226.2 billion by 2021, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46%.

I was reviewing the articles on Robotics in Healthcare and came across this very comprehensive article Robots/ Robotics in Healthcare by Dr. Bernadette Keefe, MD which provides a comprehensive look at the current and future trends.

Other areas robots are being used in healthcare in addition to the above scenarios are: 

Forrester’s Top Emerging Technologies To Watch: 2017-2021 http://bit.ly/2dmVRkZ  via @GilPress

And there you go, we look forward to you sharing your experiences and thoughts regarding these Future Technologies and share them with our community of readers. 

We appreciate you considering sharing your knowledge via The HCITExpert Blog

Suggested Reading

  1. The Future of Healthcare Is Arriving—8 Exciting Areas to Watch | Daniel Kraft, MD | Pulse | LinkedIn http://ow.ly/KrGS304kGjs
  2. Why the A.I. euphoria is doomed to fail | VentureBeat | Bots | by Evgeny Chereshnev, Kaspersky Lab http://ow.ly/CMKu304kGyU
  3. Looking Back At Today’s Healthcare In 2050 – The Medical Futurist http://ow.ly/4Dl6304kVZZ
  4. Incisionless robotic surgery offers cancer patients better chances of survival: Study – Tech2 http://ow.ly/gpMS304l3wq 
  5. Robots/Robotics in Healthcare | Bernadette Keefe MD http://ow.ly/wRbb304lz44
  6. By 2020, 43% of IT budgets will be spent on #IoT: Jim Morrish, Machina Research – The Economic Times http://ow.ly/VKuT304lFi9  
  7. Forrester’s Top Emerging Technologies To Watch: 2017-2021 http://bit.ly/2dmVRkZ  via @GilPress
  8. Are killer bots about to do away with smartphone apps? – http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37154519 
  9. Where machines could replace humans–and where they can’t (yet) | McKinsey & Company http://ow.ly/v9BY100dNn6 
  10. 2016’s hottest emerging technologies | World Economic Forum http://ow.ly/Jq2R100m4AS 
  11. The Top 10 Emerging Technologies 2016list, compiled by the Forum and published in collaboration with Scientific Americanhttp://www3.weforum.org/docs/GAC16_Top10_Emerging_Technologies_2016_report.pdf 
  12. Rwanda’s hospitals will use drones to deliver medical supplies http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/13/technology/rwanda-drone-hospital/index.html?iid=hp-toplead-intl 
  13. 4 Trends Shaping The Future Of Medical Events https://t.co/rUUUJ7oqkK #digitalhealth #hcsm https://t.co/KuPgGW4k9Z 
  14. Post-PC Tech Rules at Intel Developer Forum 2016 https://lnkd.in/fKux3Ek 
  15. House MD vs Doctor #AI- Who will turn out to be the better by @RoshiniBR http://ow.ly/elXy304mYpv

    Author

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    [content title=”About Manish Sharma” icon=”fa-heart”]

    Manish Sharma

    Founder HCITExpert.com, Digital Health Entrepreneur

    Connect with me via any of my Social Media Channels

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    Can the Internet of Things #IoT transform Healthcare? by @drvikram

    / Uncategorized / 4 minutes of reading
    Internet of things continues to dominate the world apparent by the success of the Liveworx16 that recently concluded in Boston. Liveworx is the signature event of Thingworx a PTC company. The event saw a curious mix of CAD/CAM experts who were trying to understand how IoT was going to help them mingling with IoT experts who had already implemented a few projects and were looking to consolidate on their early mover advantage. But one Industry that is looking at IoT very seriously is healthcare. Yes you heard me its healthcare, and may even leapfrog other industries when it comes to IoT adoption.


    But then why should healthcare look at IoT?


     Well that is a good question that is being asked by many hospitals and rightfully so. Hospitals have a duty towards their patients, community, physicians and staff and the last thing they want to do is to embark on a new technology for the sake of technology. But before we look at why IoT, we should probably try to understand the origin of IoT.


    Some might argue that IoT is not new, maybe the patenting of the passive RFID in 1973 was the origin of IoT. By the 1980’s many manufacturing units were already connected. Some others like consumer goods were using a form of IoT. For example Coke was using a similar technology with its vending machines in 1980’s which was invented at the Carnegie Mellon University. 1980 was also the year CERN launched World Wide Web (WWW) and the internet was born. By 1990’s Wal-Mart had mandated all organizations that are displaying their goods to have advanced RFID chips. This had led to the famous spat between P & G and Wal-Mart. I am not sure who blinked first but for a while P & G was off the shelves at Wal-Mart.

     By 2000’s we started connecting devices to the internet. Power grids and Energy companies started systems which were talking to each other. Soon cell phones were connected and then by 2008, we saw the inflection point on the number of connected devices. Today we have wearable devices that can send your physiological data to your physician that can help him or her track your health parameters like BP and sugar levels.

     IoT in India is not new either. I know for example a hospital in Delhi-NCR region had ambulances with antennas on its top, ECG machines, and monitors along with physicians in the ambulance. This way despite the traffic jams in India, the critical records of the patients would arrive at the ER and the physicians and surgeons would make the necessary preparation for stabilizing the patient and save valuable time that otherwise they would have wasted in these tests. At that time Rajesh Batra who was head of technology, was able to make this work and get the physicians and management on board by demonstrating the value of IoT in an ambulatory set up.

     “IoT has the potential to improve care” says Rajesh Batra , “But we need to be careful about security as it very easy for a breach which would be dangerous for a hospital”

     He continues the same zeal in Kokilaben Hospital in Mumbai where he currently is the CIO. He is also looking at integrating IoT with emerging areas like Omni Channel with iBeacons to give a truly connected experience at the hospital.

     As I have written many times in the past, we in India have this unique opportunity to create a new healthcare model that can help 1.3 billion people manage their health. I think an important component of that is population health.

     Now a hypothetical population health program could work on the principle of a hospital enrolling a set of patients who need chronic care, let’s say for example diabetes into a program. The program entails these patients to check their sugar levels regularly and through IoT their sugar levels get updated into a program dash board that the physician can see. If the sugar levels are within the parameter then there is no incident. But if the sugar levels rise or fall outside of the normal range. Then the system alerts the physician. The physician would check if this is one off case or is there is a regular pattern. Based on this he or she can intervene and schedule a checkup and enter the same in the record.

     Now this is a simple example, but helps us to understand how a potential IoT solution could work in population health. It would not only help in tackling chronic diseases in India, but could serve as the only option in tier 2 and tier 3 cities where access to hospitals is not available. Having said all that IoT will definitely shape the future of healthcare in the country, the only thing to be seen is the extent of that transformation.

    The article was first published on Dr. Vikram’s Blog, it is reproduced here with the authors permission
    Author
    Dr Vikram Venkateswaran

    Dr Vikram Venkateswaran is a healthcare thought leader who writes and speaks about the emerging healthcare models in India and the role technology plays in them.

    TRIVENI: A remote patient monitoring solution via @msharmas – Part 2

    / TELEMEDICINE / 2 minutes of reading

    Introduction to Part 2

    In the part 2 of this series, I will endeavour to define the Business Case and the Timelines for the Research and Development of the TRIVENI framework.

    In putting across the Business Model Canvas, the effort is to present a case study for Medical Device development in India.

    In this blog post I provide the details of the 9 building blocks of the TRIVENI: Business Canvas Model

    In the concluding part of the blog, I will provide the Project Plan and effort estimates for developing the TRIVENI platform to cover the Research & Product Development Phase.

    Suggested Reading

    1. Unlocking the potential of the Internet of Things | McKinsey on Healthcare
    2. 10 most in-demand Internet of Things Skills – CIO – Slideshow
    3. Analyzing Cost Structure for Medical Device Companies – Market Realist 
    4. Lantronix on “Why Every Healthcare Device Should be Connected to the Internet of Things” | Symmetry Electronics
    5. #IoT software development requires an integrated DevOps platform 

    #infographic: IoT in Healthcare, Types of Opportunities

    / Uncategorized / 1 minute of reading

    Infographic: IoT in Healthcare: Types of Opportunities

    To develop an IoT based solution like TRIVENI, it is important to understand the market opportunity. In this infographic we leverage information from various reports that define the market opportunity that allow for the development and investment in such a solution

    We present the total economic impact of IoT in the Healthcare Industry as also the types of opportunities that can be explored by Healthcare Technology vendors

    Author

    Team HCITExperts

    Your partner in Digital Health Transformation using innovative and insightful ideas

    Suggested Reading

    1. Why Integration is Critical to Success in IoT implementations – Smarter With Gartner http://ow.ly/HBxF300BwYI
    2. is not one size fits all
    3. Internet of Things for Healthcare May be Worth $410B by 2022 http://bit.ly/1RpbwMq  
    4.  A Must-Read Overview of the Medical Device Industry – Market Realist http://ow.ly/EjF8300yD9A   
    5. Plug And Play Middleware Integration Solutions Gain In Popularity While Interoperability Stymies Healthcare http://bit.ly/1RjlX3R

    More INFOGRAPHICS by TEAM HCITExpert

    1. 7 Types of Cyber Threats
    2. Healthcare Cyber breaches by numbers – Mar 2016

    New Healthcare Aggregators: SMAC and IoT via @pankajguptadr

    / Uncategorized / 4 minutes of reading

    Author: Dr. Pankaj Gupta

    Digital Health Influencer & SMAC / IoT Speaker
    15.Feb.2016, India

    ─
    The old paradigm of business as a linear value chain is now facing extinction. Businesses are now ecologies and not merely producers and sellers ! That requires a change in thinking. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) needs to be a mission at every step of the process. This is hard to overemphasize! The internet is clearly the medium that allows such integration across time and space. It is time to take a more accepting look at Cloud and Social Media technologies. This offers the only universal layer of engagement across stakeholders. The investment in IT hardware as we new it in the past has been greatly optimized by mobile. It has brought a tactile feel to life and work for all of us. Mobile mirrors the nature of Healthcare in terms of immediacy and continuity so well. Healthcare needs to embrace it wholeheartedly. Healthcare can only profit from it.

    There is a huge Vacuum in Indian Healthcare-IT space. Large Healthcare-IT vendors have exited the market. Either they lost interest and exited or got bought out e.g. TrakHealth, iSoft. Also the market is moving from client-server to cloud and from Capex to Opex models. New cloud based players are small in size and yet to reach enterprise class. Existing players are not able to shift out to cloud because of their long term negotiated contracts in client-server model. The time is now when full conversion of Enterprise class to SMAC will happen anyways. Healthcare CIOs can keep eyes closed or tighten the belt and ride the Digital wave.

    Recently I spoke to a Director of State NHM in India. He said we are doing HMIS and Public health through ANM/ASHA. How do we benefit from SMAC IoT platform? Hard for many to imagine SMAC is a unifying force across enterprises and IoT breaks the silos. This can be quite unnerving for many. 

    The era of hierarchical command and control is over. Now is the time for horizontal networking across Communities of Practice [CoP]. Whatever gets the maximum likes becomes the In Thing. Whatever is the In Thing gets used the maximum. Students are learning more from the online networking than from the formal classroom and professors. Research will reach the point of use as soon as it gets published. Primary care Providers in semi-urban and rural areas will have access to latest therapeutic recommendations. The old Adage that ‘Knowledge is the only form of power that is not expendable but grows when shared’ has become true.  

    The movie Avatar has beautifully depicted the concept of Small data ^ = Big Data where small knowledge base of each living being [App] is contributing towards the collective consciousness [Big Data] of Eywa. Now the question is will the future of SMAC/IoT be driven by technology or biotechnology?

    Anyways for now – The time has come when you don’t need big monolithic HIS software to run hospitals. Now you can do everything with small mobile based Apps for every function. Though I am already seeing many of these Apps in the market but what is lacking is a unified platform on which the Apps should be built such that the data can be seamlessly collated. Also it gives the provider the flexibility to select from a bouquet of Apps. 

    IoT integration platforms are emerging that will integrate at the App level, Data level and Semantic level. Anyone in the ecosystem can slice, dice, run reports on the collated data.

    Successful Cloud models have dug the grave for the Enterprise Hardware. Capex has got converted to Opex. Now you can pay for the software on the cloud like you pay your monthly electricity bill.

    SMAC coupled with IoT has a potential to bring the Aggregator Business model to Healthcare. Soon the unorganised and fragmented primary care, secondary care and supporting care market will begin to get Aggregated. I see these Aggregators becoming larger than established capital intensive Enterprise market similar to what happened in the Automobile market. It will be in the interest of Insurance, Pharma and Govt to go all out and support this emerging SMAC/IoT driven Healthcare Market Aggregation.    

    References

    Why Healthcare must Re-imagine itself – and how
    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-healthcare-must-re-imagine-itself-how-arun-kumbhat
    Why All Indian Hospitals IT is in Bad Shape
    http://healthcareitstrategy.blogspot.in/2014/04/why-all-indian-hospitals-it-is-in-bad.html
    Global HIS/EMR vendor nightmare outside US
    http://healthcareitstrategy.blogspot.in/2012/08/global-hisemr-vendor-nightmare-outside.html
    Thick client vs Thin client
    http://healthcareitstrategy.blogspot.in/2008/08/thick-client-vs-thin-client.html
    There is no Market for EMR in India
    http://healthcareitstrategy.blogspot.in/2012/10/there-is-no-market-for-emr-in-india.html
    Size of Healthcare-IT Market in India
    http://healthcareitstrategy.blogspot.in/2012/06/size-of-healthcare-it-market-in-india.html 

    Please note: The Author of this article is Dr. Pankaj Gupta. The article was first published on Dr. Gupta’s blog. And also on Dr. Gupta’s LinkedIn profile :New Healthcare Aggregators: SMAC and IoT | Dr Pankaj Gupta | LinkedIn

    Article By: Dr. Pankaj Gupta

    Digital Health Influencer & SMAC / IoT Speaker | Healthcare Business Executive, Chief Medical Informatics Officer at ProMed Network AG | Managing Partner at TAURUS GLOCAL CONSULTING | Director at Taurus Globalsourcing Inc.
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