The healthcare spending is set to experience a growth of 5.4% between 2018 and 2022, compared to the 2013–2017 growth rate of 2.9%, according to the 2019 Global Health Care Outlook report published by Deloitte. Not only are the number of hospitals, cases of chronic diseases, and geriatric population increasing, but the sector is also going through rapid technological advancements. One of the recently introduced technologies, which is also becoming rapidly popular, is internet of things (IoT). Before delving into its application in healthcare, it is important to first understand its basic concept. IoT involves equipping various electronic devices with some sort of communication technology so that the data exchange among these happens automatically without the requirement for humans. In the medical field, these could range from a simple electronic prescription log to complicated equipment such as ventilators, cardiac monitors, and implantable pacemakers.
As per a study by P&S Intelligence, the IoT healthcare market valued $56.1 billion in 2017, from where it is predicted to ultimately reach $267.6 billion in the coming years at a CAGR of 30.2%. The technology finds many applications in the medical and wellness sector, including clinical operations and workflow management, telemedicine, connected imaging, medication management, and inpatient monitoring. Among these, the heaviest utilization of IoT up till now has been in telemedicine, and the trend is set to continue in the near future. It allows patients and doctors to see and communicate from a distance via audio-visual equipment. Not only can they talk to each other, but the patient data can be also automatically transferred from medical devices straight to the healthcare provider.
This is of special benefit to patients who live in remote areas, far from a healthcare facility such as a clinic, nursing home, or a full-fledged hospital. IoT-enabled telemedicine saves time by enabling quick data exchange and money by doing away with frequent hospital visits. The elderly or those who are confined to a bed and are unable to travel are also prominent users of telemedicine. Defibrillators, insulin pumps, cardiac monitoring devices, continuous positive airway pressure machines, and oxygen tanks are the most prominent remote patient care devices to be equipped with IoT. As these provide swift medical care and improve patient outcomes, the demand for these devices is rising across the world.
Growing prevalence of lifestyle-related and chronic diseases has created the need for constant self-monitoring of health parameters. Several mHealth apps help people keep a check on their glucose levels, heart rate, blood pressure, and other vitals. These apps and connected medical devices have popularized the use of IoT in personalized healthcare management, as these also record the disease progression, and help patients in scheduling appointments and managing medication. The rising smartphone use has led to an increase in mHealth app downloads, further impacting the IoT healthcare market positively.
Similarly, on the basis of technology, the domain can be divided into BLE, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, NFC, satellite, and cellular. Among these, Wi-Fi led the IoT healthcare market in 2017 with 41.8% revenue contribution. The reason for this is the growing adoption of Wi-Fi tools and gadgets in hospitals for transferring data to and from the cloud. This is also why, as per the study, the Wi-Fi category is expected to advance with the highest CAGR (32.1%) during the forecast period.
Hence, we see that advancements in technology, allowing for remote patient monitoring and real-time disease management, will continue to drive the IoT healthcare market progress.
