Q. Smart Beds sounds interesting; in sync with this, what would be the cost of adapting IoT in health care in hospitals in India?
A. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), by 2020 the number of connected devices in health care will be more than 30% of the total connected devices.
Boosting this is the fact that the cost of related technologies has come down manifold. Healthcare cost in US is close to 18% of the total GDP and more than 50% is state sponsored and it is going to cost near $40 trillion by 2050 because of increase in chronic disease.
As per the Ministry of Health in India, development of 50 technologies has been targeted in the FY16, for the treatment of disease like Cancer and TB. 100% FDI is allowed under the automatic route for Greenfield projects.
For Brownfield project investments, up to 100% FDI is permitted under the government route.
Q.In India, do you have any apprehensions about world class treatment via connected devices (driven by IoT) being confined only to the elite?
A. Data generated with the help of devices or smart hospital beds needs to be communicated and analysed for more effective action. Here, the sensors, connected devices, and other things in healthcare IoT will gradually get cheap.
For instance, portable machines used for monitoring of certain patient types used to cost as much as $1,000 (Rs 65000), but recently, patients can buy individual devices for atrial fibrillation for just $75 (Rs 5000).
Subscriptions to cardiac monitoring services can use this lower-cost collection of data by allowing frequent notification in case of an emergency. In other words, we can often increase one technology’s created value by integrating it in a more adaptive environment.
In the long run, IoT will help to make healthcare facilities affordable for everyone, not restricting to elite class only.
Finally, healthcare IoT and smart concepts would also take medical treatments to the home, from the hospital. This should gradually bring down costs and thereby help the masses.
Q. Finally, what have been the most innovative IoT-surgery concepts that have surfaced in recent times?
A. The most important of these is listed below:
- Bodytrak – Users can measure, in real time,the vitals such as body temperature, heart rate, VO2, speed, distance, and cadence. Bodytrak also measures the biometric information from the ears; this lets users listen to music and make telephone calls as well.
- Motiv – This stylish and elegant ring behaves like a step counter, heart rate monitor or sleep tracker, the major advantage being – it is element resistant (water, ice, etc.).
- Aria – Aria agents monitor realtime scenario of the physically challenged through smart glasses or a phone camera, and talk them through the situation – making it a easy to cross the street, or finding a switch.
- QardioCore – This wearable lets you share clinically accurate continuous ECG, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, and activity data with medical professionals. You can also sync to the free Qardio app or Apple’s Health app on iPhone or iPad.
- Neogia – Neogia’s wearable, MOTIO HW detects sleep apnoea and improves the overall quality of sleep via a personalized artificial intelligence system that learns about the user.
 All of these health innovations concepts were showcased at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2017).
