**Abstract**

Utilising the new trend technologies in healthcare sector could offer alternative ways in managing the patients' health records and also improve the healthcare quality. As such, this chapter provides an overview of utilising the Internet of Things (IoT) technology in healthcare sector as an emerging research and practical trend nowadays. The main benefits and advantages have been discussed in this chapter. On the other hand, it has been found that most of the hospitals in different countries are still facing many issues regarding their health information exchange. Recently, various studies in the area of healthcare information system mentioned that the fragmentations of the health information are one of the most important challenges with the distribution of patient information records. Therefore, in this chapter, we gave an in detail overview regarding the current issues facing the health sector in line with the IoT technologies. Additionally, a full description of advantages and disadvantages has been highlighted for using IoT in healthcare that can be considered as solutions for the mentioned issues.

**Keywords:** IoT, Internet of Things, healthcare, e-Health, health information exchange

### **1. Introduction**

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a new technology that aims to connect the world via smart devices or objects with capabilities of collecting and sharing various types of information at any location, time, media and environments. By assigning a unique identification to each object in the network, IoT allows its users to live smart, safe lives. In healthcare systems, IoT is mainly used to gain quick access to health information. IoT can be defined as an interconnected network that links a large number of devices to one another for purposes of making large-scale information accessible to all. This technology can be seen as a grid of computers that deliver software and data via the Internet. As illustrated in **Figure 1**, Cisco defines IoT as a revolution of the 'Internet of Everything' that involves people, processes, data and things [1].

Many health organisations need to exchange data with one another to address their problems and to improve their performance [1]. Health-related data are especially important for these organisations to provide their patients with better healthcare services. The exchange of health information among these organisations has been termed 'health information exchange (HIE)', which has become a pervasive global phenomenon [2, 3]. Although not a novel concept in the health industry, HIE needs to reinvent itself every 2.5 years to adapt to the current technological advancements and the changes in the environment [4]. According to the 'Evolution of State Health Information Exchange in the U.S. (2006)', HIE offers

many significant contributions to the designing of different projects, such as financing, identifying patterns of success, ensuring programmatic sustainability and highlighting challenges, trends and best practices [5]. HIE also provides many opportunities to improve the quality and reduce the cost of healthcare, improve the workflows of clinical organisations and facilitate the administration of data within the healthcare system [5]. However, HIE also poses one of the most complex problems in electronic health record (EHR) management [6]. Therefore, dissemination and communication are essential attributes of health information systems [7].

The medical records of each patient are stored in physical and electronic databases. However, when patients decide to move to new healthcare providers, the latter have no tools or directories that they can use to check where the medical records of these patients are stored. Such inaccessibility of medical records can lead to unnecessary procedures, duplicate tests and many other problems, such as adverse drug interaction. According to Tharmalingam et al. [8], Canada faces many difficulties related to HIE, including complex systems, lack of knowledge as to the location of patients' medical records, lack of access to information and lack of data standards that allow the exchange of clinical information. Some non-technological barriers also exist, including care burden, issues related to patient consent, differences in business models, limited understanding of procedures and loss of competitive advantage [2, 9].

Virtually storing patient data and making them ubiquitously accessible to all healthcare personnel is the first step in HIE [10]. Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in the application of sensing technologies and widely available smart devices for monitoring personal health, fitness and activity. Continuously recording key physiological parameters via sensors can provide healthcare practitioners with the necessary data to produce rich longitudinal records [11]. Meanwhile, data from physical examinations provide doctors with comprehensive information that allows them to measure the physiological and metabolic states of their patients. Accessing a large number of observation data via health information systems can also help doctors improve their prognosis for their patients and recommend effective treatment, intervention and lifestyle choices to improve their health quality [12].

**43**

*IOT Service Utilisation in Healthcare*

technologies for facilitating HIE.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86014*

patients and optimise their healthcare processes [14].

With the massive advancements in communication and computer technologies, organisations must urgently apply and utilise these technologies to compete effectively and survive in the market. IoT cannot improve the performance of hospitals if such technology is not being utilised to measure the success of a system [13]. A vast and multi-layered infrastructure of ubiquitous computing technologies and applications is also emerging. Mobile phones, laptops, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, personal digital assistants and various forms of sensing devices based on digital and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies have also penetrated the healthcare industry. IoT establishes connections among different entities, including humans (e.g. patients and medical staff), medical devices, intelligent wheelchairs, wireless sensors and mobile robots. People in the healthcare industry also rely on this technology to provide high-quality and affordable healthcare services, minimise medical errors, guarantee the safety of their

However, despite the wide availability of smart devices and novel communication technologies, healthcare professionals and patients are still generally unwilling to exchange health information while a large number of hospitals are yet to implement advanced technologies to promote their HIE capability [15–17]. IoT provides new opportunities for healthcare professionals to deliver health information to hard-to-reach populations. Utilising such technology often requires an organisation to spend a considerable amount of resources at different stages [18]. Unfortunately, most health organisations in developing countries only have few resources to spare for using new technologies, including IoT [19]. Many other issues also prevent these hospitals from receiving financial incentives that will enable them to adopt new

In sum, using IoT is in great demand in the healthcare sector. To effectively utilise IoT, hospitals must possess the necessary resources to produce the maximum value possible and to prevent failure [20]. Therefore, this chapter focuses on those problems being faced by the healthcare industry in its implementation of advanced technologies. Over the past 5 years, many health information systems have faced several concerns with regard to medical records. Most of these systems have focused on accelerating their provision of services to patients and improving the perfor-

The rapid proliferation of smart devices offers unprecedented opportunities for patients and health care professionals to exchange health information electronically [16]. The IoT is one of the smart technologies to integrate the smart devices on network. On the other hand, IoT is a global information infrastructure that enables advanced services by interconnecting devices based on existing and evolving interoperable information and communication technologies [21]. Thus, it is a collection of several opportunities that have wellness providing for the hospitals such as optimising the resources through automated workflows as well as process excellence. For instance, a majority of hospitals use IoT services for asset management and controlling humidity and temperature within operating rooms [22]. The collection of health data has multiple benefits to interdisciplinary healthcare collaboration, while most of the research focuses on the personal fitness plan and has a lack of compatibility and extensibility among a large number of devices and their business models. Compatibility involves in information exchanging, communication and events processing. There is a strong need for an efficient interface mechanism to simplify the management and interconnection of things. However,

mance of hospitals by reconstructing their current workflows.

**2. Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare**

#### *IOT Service Utilisation in Healthcare DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86014*

*Internet of Things (IoT) for Automated and Smart Applications*

many significant contributions to the designing of different projects, such as financing, identifying patterns of success, ensuring programmatic sustainability and highlighting challenges, trends and best practices [5]. HIE also provides many opportunities to improve the quality and reduce the cost of healthcare, improve the workflows of clinical organisations and facilitate the administration of data within the healthcare system [5]. However, HIE also poses one of the most complex problems in electronic health record (EHR) management [6]. Therefore, dissemination and communication are essential attributes of health information systems [7].

understanding of procedures and loss of competitive advantage [2, 9].

Virtually storing patient data and making them ubiquitously accessible to all healthcare personnel is the first step in HIE [10]. Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in the application of sensing technologies and widely available smart devices for monitoring personal health, fitness and activity. Continuously recording key physiological parameters via sensors can provide healthcare practitioners with the necessary data to produce rich longitudinal records [11]. Meanwhile, data from physical examinations provide doctors with comprehensive information that allows them to measure the physiological and metabolic states of their patients. Accessing a large number of observation data via health information systems can also help doctors improve their prognosis for their patients and recommend effective treatment, intervention and lifestyle choices to improve their health quality [12].

The medical records of each patient are stored in physical and electronic databases. However, when patients decide to move to new healthcare providers, the latter have no tools or directories that they can use to check where the medical records of these patients are stored. Such inaccessibility of medical records can lead to unnecessary procedures, duplicate tests and many other problems, such as adverse drug interaction. According to Tharmalingam et al. [8], Canada faces many difficulties related to HIE, including complex systems, lack of knowledge as to the location of patients' medical records, lack of access to information and lack of data standards that allow the exchange of clinical information. Some non-technological barriers also exist, including care burden, issues related to patient consent, differences in business models, limited

**42**

**Figure 1.** *IoT revolution [1].*

With the massive advancements in communication and computer technologies, organisations must urgently apply and utilise these technologies to compete effectively and survive in the market. IoT cannot improve the performance of hospitals if such technology is not being utilised to measure the success of a system [13]. A vast and multi-layered infrastructure of ubiquitous computing technologies and applications is also emerging. Mobile phones, laptops, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, personal digital assistants and various forms of sensing devices based on digital and radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies have also penetrated the healthcare industry. IoT establishes connections among different entities, including humans (e.g. patients and medical staff), medical devices, intelligent wheelchairs, wireless sensors and mobile robots. People in the healthcare industry also rely on this technology to provide high-quality and affordable healthcare services, minimise medical errors, guarantee the safety of their patients and optimise their healthcare processes [14].

However, despite the wide availability of smart devices and novel communication technologies, healthcare professionals and patients are still generally unwilling to exchange health information while a large number of hospitals are yet to implement advanced technologies to promote their HIE capability [15–17]. IoT provides new opportunities for healthcare professionals to deliver health information to hard-to-reach populations. Utilising such technology often requires an organisation to spend a considerable amount of resources at different stages [18]. Unfortunately, most health organisations in developing countries only have few resources to spare for using new technologies, including IoT [19]. Many other issues also prevent these hospitals from receiving financial incentives that will enable them to adopt new technologies for facilitating HIE.

In sum, using IoT is in great demand in the healthcare sector. To effectively utilise IoT, hospitals must possess the necessary resources to produce the maximum value possible and to prevent failure [20]. Therefore, this chapter focuses on those problems being faced by the healthcare industry in its implementation of advanced technologies. Over the past 5 years, many health information systems have faced several concerns with regard to medical records. Most of these systems have focused on accelerating their provision of services to patients and improving the performance of hospitals by reconstructing their current workflows.
