Internet of things for a smart and ubiquitous ehealth system

Abstract

Connected data has always been considered as a primary source to knowledge. Internet of Things uses the virtue of connecting this data from different entities and creates a pool of knowledge for providing smart services to users, based on rigorous analysis and processing over the knowledge. The communication in this context scales to not only between machine to machine but also between a large number of heterogeneous entities and persons. This genius technology of Internet of Things holds paramount importance and application in healthcare technologies. Considering health technologies, a large number of devices generate huge amount of data related to a patient. Assimilating the data from heterogeneous sources and using it to generate intelligence is one of the primary tasks in a smart environment. In the context of eHealth, Internet of Things is of immense importance since connected data about patient would facilitate treatment with more efficiency and comprehensive knowledge. Virtually storing the patient data and making it ubiquitously accessible to concerned healthcare personnel would be the first step toward mutual knowledge sharing. Another important aspect of using this connected data is the design of an intelligent clinical decision support system which would assist the doctors in every possible way during the treatment phase. A model has been proposed with an inclusive approach of Internet of Things in eHealth scenario for a smart medical environment and providing ubiquitous services at its best. Several issues pertaining to the system has also been discussed accordingly. Nevertheless, the enormous spread of Internet of Things for efficient and intelligent healthcare services holds quite inevitable. Rather it adds to the foundation notion of ubiquitous services by making available to everyone and everywhere. The new age eHealth facilities are expected to enable end-to-end monitoring systems even at remote scenarios, helping medical services reach the unreached.