The central government has set the tone and increased investment. With the arrival of spring, "new infrastructure" has become popular. Among the seven major fields of new infrastructure, the Internet of Things is an ubiquitous presence, deeply integrated into every module involved in the new infrastructure. The era of interconnected everything has arrived.
In the recent COVID-19, IoT technology also showed its huge enabling role in the medical and health industry. We can see that typical IoT applications such as robots and intelligent wards have been fully deployed both domestically and internationally. With the development of technology and changes in market demand, the application scope of the Internet of Things is gradually expanding.
Arterial Network collected a list of 312 medical IoT companies from multiple public channels, and took the 2018 Arterial Network research "Special Report: Deep Analysis of 16 Major Application Scenarios of Medical IoT in 2018" as the starting point. By comparing the IoT product application scenarios provided by these companies, seven innovative medical IoT application scenarios were compiled. The arterial network will provide detailed explanations of the reasons and solutions for each application scenario, along with enterprise cases, in order to better promote the practical application of the Internet of Things in the medical and health field.
Technical architecture of medical Internet of Things
The Internet of Things, abbreviated as IoT, is the core of future smart healthcare. According to the service-oriented architecture, the medical Internet is divided into four layers: the perception layer, the network layer, the platform layer and the application layer.
The perception layer, also known as the sensing layer, is a fundamental feature of the Internet of Things, consisting of sensor hardware including RFID and various smart sensors, as well as corresponding data perception/collection protocols. Its function is to identify and collect device information and data.
The network layer is composed of Internet, WIFI network, RFID network, 5G network, Zigbee, LoRa, NB IoT and other networks. The role of the network layer is to connect all objects and allow devices to transmit shared information with other devices within the network.
The platform layer plays a crucial role in the architecture of the Internet of Things, serving as a bridge between the upper and lower layers. The core of the platform layer is middleware technology, which needs to meet unified service specifications. The hardware and software platforms of middleware can be reused, providing a low-cost platform for the Internet of Things to seamlessly integrate IoT services and applications.
The application layer is the interface between the Internet of Things and users, and is the concentrated embodiment of the value of the Internet of Things.
The medical Internet of Things has formed a huge network by effectively integrating various networks and combining the information and data collected and stored by perception devices, thereby achieving refined management of people and things in hospitals, and realizing the intelligence, information sharing, and interconnection of resources.
At present, the application scenarios of medical IoT are already very rich. In the compiled list of 312 enterprise products, high and low value consumables management, diagnostic reagents and drug management, medical waste management, infant anti-theft, patient loss prevention, intelligent infusion management, etc. are the application scenarios that account for a relatively large proportion in the IoT enterprise product list, and their application level in hospitals is already quite mature.
Among them, many application scenarios are developed based on the same technology, such as baby anti-theft, chest pain center, wireless alarm and help seeking, all of which use RFID positioning technology, but the service objects and application scenarios are not the same.
With the increasing popularity of the Internet of Things, there are also more and more innovative projects based on IoT technology. Many innovative projects explicitly state that IoT technology is the technical support for their products, and the service targets and demands of IoT products have become more diverse and refined.
Based on this, seven innovative application scenarios have been identified for arterial networks. They are clothing management, medical staff safety alarm, environmental monitoring, IoT+rehabilitation robots, health management solutions, hand hygiene, AGV logistics robots.
Seven innovative application scenarios
Among these 312 companies, 55 of them are involved in these 7 innovative application scenarios.
In these seven application scenarios, arterial networks are divided into two categories based on their different characteristics, namely, medical service demands aimed at improving the quality of medical services, and cost control demands aimed at improving work efficiency.
It is obvious that clothing management, environmental monitoring, and AGV logistics robots belong to cost control needs, while rehabilitation robots+IoT, medical staff alarm, hand hygiene, and health management belong to medical service needs. Among the seven innovative application scenarios, the proportion of cost controllable demand is 54%, slightly higher than the demand for medical services.
After analyzing the arterial network, it is believed that although asset management may not directly reflect the cost control effect for hospitals in the short term, in the long run, it is an inevitable trend for hospitals to achieve asset management through the Internet of Things. In addition, due to reasons such as medical insurance cost control, the demand for cost control in some hospitals has increased, and the desire to achieve lean management in hospitals through the use of the Internet of Things has been strengthened.
Case analysis of seven major application scenarios
For these seven innovative applications, specific cases were used to illustrate their actual implementation in detail for the arterial network.
Medical staff safety alarm
Medical violence has become a global issue, widely present in both developing and developed countries, regardless of living standards and levels of civilization. In addition to elevating medical violence to the level of legal protection, it is also necessary to implement protective measures in practical work.
In the hospital's "three defense system", human defense is the foundation, material defense is the guarantee, and technical defense is the core. The frequent occurrence of medical injury incidents is directly related to the relatively lagging safety measures of hospitals, in addition to other complex factors. So optimizing the "technical defense" in the hospital's "three defenses" system has become an urgent problem to be solved in the hospital security process.
The Internet of Things has also played a role in protecting the safety of medical personnel. The safety medical system launched by Anke Information is based on its medical wireless IoT platform and medical positioning network design. The alarm system mainly consists of two parts: a front-end one click alarm device and a back-end alarm management platform. The two are connected through wireless network transmission.
When there is a dispute between doctors and patients, medical staff can use the chest badge style positioning tag button to issue a pre alarm. The system will send an alarm to the security department, provide the location information of the alarm personnel, and track and refresh it in real time. The system can also link with the video surveillance system to view the video in real time. Security personnel will arrive at the scene as soon as they receive the alarm to dissuade and intervene, avoiding the occurrence of medical accidents.
environmental monitoring
Place temperature tags, smoke detection tags, water immersion tags, door magnetic tags, current tags, liquid temperature tags and many other wireless sensors in the environment that needs to be monitored in the hospital for data collection and monitoring. Then, transmit the data to the monitoring platform through wireless networks such as ZigBee network, GSM network, WIFI, etc. If the monitoring parameters are abnormal, the platform will promptly transmit the data information to the administrator for processing.
Based on the actual management needs of the hospital, Wistron has established a comprehensive monitoring and management platform for the temperature, humidity, and environment of three-level drugs in the hospital based on the Internet of Things. This platform enables real-time networked monitoring of the temperature, humidity, power supply status, fire smoke detection status, oxygen concentration, carbon dioxide concentration, air particulate matter, various TVOC concentrations, and door opening and closing status of all storage and transportation equipment and facilities for drugs (including cold chain drugs and vaccines) in the hospital.
Health management
In chronic disease management, timely access to vital signs of high-risk populations or patients plays a significant role in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. With the development of IoT technology, remote and real-time vital sign collection has become possible through wireless transmission technology.
The interactive resident health management service platform based on the Internet of Things adopts Internet of Things technology to achieve resident health management services supported by three levels of health perception, transmission, and application. It adopts an open technology route to integrate and share medical and health service resources.
The Miao Health Miao+platform has integrated over 300 types of health hardware. RFID reading devices and wireless transmission modules are uniformly installed on vital sign sensors such as blood pressure monitors and blood glucose meters. The RFID reading devices are used to identify users, and when uploading user detection information, the RFID information is also synchronized for data integration on the backend server. Users can view the trend of data changes through mobile phones, computers, watches, etc., and medical staff can provide further diagnosis and treatment suggestions for abnormal data through the client.
In addition to RFID technology, NB IoT network technology also touches on chronic disease management. In 2016, Huawei, Lexin Medical, and Guangdong Unicom completed the business debugging of intelligent blood pressure monitors in the current NB IoT network environment of Guangdong Unicom, marking the birth of intelligent health and medical equipment based on NB IoT technology and the breakthrough of NB IoT business applications into the field of intelligent medical equipment.
NB IoT (Narrow Band Internet of Things) is a cellular based narrowband Internet of Things, an important technology branch in the field of IoT, and a technology in low-power wide area networks.
After each use, the intelligent sphygmomanometer can automatically upload relevant measurement data to the intelligent health cloud platform through the NB IoT wireless network for data analysis and sorting, and form real-time health charts and analysis reports, which can be delivered to the user's APP or WeChat official account, so that users can understand the health data of individuals and their family members anytime and anywhere, and control the health trend.
By combining the technological advantages of NB IoT, such as low power consumption and deep coverage, the product's power saving advantage can be enhanced, solving the problem of poor signal coverage and difficult data upload in some areas of traditional products based on GPRS wireless feedback, and further improving the customer experience.
Rehabilitation robot+Internet of Things
The application value of the Internet of Things and rehabilitation robots is reflected in the fact that patients can receive rehabilitation training through robots, and the robots can real-time understand the patient's condition and provide the required rehabilitation training based on the sensors on the robots. Through the Internet of Things system, doctors, patients, and their families can have real-time access to the patient's physical condition and training progress, enabling remote diagnosis, treatment, and guidance.
Arterial network prediction: Internet of Things will be the development direction of rehabilitation equipment products. The reason is that:
Firstly, the digitization and Internet of Things of medical equipment can help rehabilitation therapists to more accurately grasp patients' physical conditions and provide more precise rehabilitation plans.
Secondly, the application of Internet of Things technology also provides new opportunities and treatment methods for rehabilitation therapy. It can create a more interesting rehabilitation training environment, improve patients' enthusiasm and initiative in participating in training, and achieve quantitative rehabilitation evaluation, visual training, and intelligent management.
Thirdly, based on the Internet of Things, a rehabilitation information management system will be developed to create a closed-loop cloud platform between households, communities, and medical institutions, enabling data sharing and improving the two-way referral system and hierarchical technical guidance between tertiary hospitals and rehabilitation hospitals and community institutions, achieving integrated evaluation, training, and testing.
In addition, with the Internet of Things (IoT) of rehabilitation equipment, rapid maintenance and software updates can be achieved. At the same time, with the Internet of Things, the frequency of product usage can be recorded to determine whether the equipment is suitable for the department, helping enterprises to update and iterate the equipment.
The core product of Step Robot, BEAR-H1 exoskeleton rehabilitation robot, embeds the Internet of Things into its intelligent rehabilitation system.
By installing wireless quantifiable sensors on the robot, an evaluation system is established to reflect the patient's physical condition. During the patient treatment process, wireless sensors collect data on the patient's movement amplitude, strength, etc., and upload the data to the Internet of Things platform. At the same time, the walking robot will also collect clinical evaluations made by doctors for patients, and then compare the two sets of data to find their inherent relationship, further proposing rehabilitation plans for patients.
Through the Internet of Things system, doctors, patients, and their families can have real-time access to the patient's physical condition and training progress, enabling remote diagnosis, treatment, and guidance. This can extend the time for patients to receive rehabilitation training, no longer limited by hospital facilities or beds, and also increase the hospital's revenue generating channels. For patients, rehabilitation training is more convenient, and prolonging the training time will also bring better rehabilitation effects.
Technology is the main driving force for the development of medical IoT
The arrival of 5G has greatly promoted the development of medical IoT. The communication technology of medical IoT includes short-range wireless communication technologies such as WiFi and Bluetooth, as well as wide area network communication technologies such as 2/3/4G cellular communication technology. High speed services mainly use 3G and 4G technologies.
Cellular, Wi Fi, and Bluetooth enable the Internet of Things to be used across platforms, and 5G is the link that connects these things. IoT devices have different functions and data requirements, and 5G networks can fully support them.
The Haas School of Business in the United States pointed out in a report that "the most significant impact of 5G in the healthcare field is' medical personalization '. The Internet of Things can continuously collect patient specific data, quickly process, analyze, and return information, and recommend suitable treatment plans to patients, which will enable patients to have more self-management capabilities
With the issuance of 5G licenses, the 5G network will better fulfill its role as a "smart pipeline", facilitating data transmission between the Internet of Things and supporting applications such as high-definition video and real-time monitoring.
NB IoT network will enable the Internet of Things to move away from fragmentation and accelerate the informationization upgrade of the medical industry. NB IoT cellular technology (Narrowband Cellular IoT), as a globally unified mobile IoT standard, relies on cellular networks to build a widely covered, low-power, large link, low-cost, and high security network. It is the best solution in the LPWA (Low Power Wide Area Network) field and can meet various application scenarios for low-speed business.
According to 2019 data, China Telecom has 310000 NB IoT base stations, making it the world's largest record holder; In May 2019, China Unicom's scale also exceeded 300000, basically achieving nationwide coverage. China Mobile announced at the 2019 Mobile Communication IoT Ecology Conference that it has built over 200000 NB IoT base stations nationwide, covering 346 cities. According to China Mobile's big connectivity strategy, the scale of cellular IoT connections in China Mobile is expected to reach 500 million by 2020.
On May 7, 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Deepening the Comprehensive Development of Mobile Internet of Things" (referred to as the "Notice"), with the overall goal of promoting the migration and networking of 2G/3G IoT services, proposing the establishment of a comprehensive ecosystem for NB IoT (Narrowband IoT), 4G, and 5G coordinated development of mobile IoT. By the end of 2020, NB IoT networks will achieve universal coverage in the main urban areas of county-level and above cities, with deep coverage in key areas. The number of mobile IoT connections will reach 1.2 billion, creating a number of NB IoT application benchmark projects and NB IoT million level connection scale application scenarios.
NB IoT adopts designs such as ultra narrowband, repetitive transmission, and streamlined network protocols to meet the connectivity requirements of the Internet of Things. With the support of relevant national policies, technologies such as LPWAN are rapidly industrializing. With the large-scale deployment of IoT networks by the three major operators, the scaling up of NB IoT may become an important breakthrough point for the popularization of IoT. NB IoT networks will also be widely used in the field of medical IoT.
Sensors are the fundamental components of various medical hardware. The Internet of Things is an intelligent service system that connects objects, people, systems, and information resources through passive active RFID tags, wristbands, health all-in-one machines, wearable devices, and other sensing devices according to agreed protocols, enabling information processing and response to physical and virtual worlds. Currently, the most widely used applications of the Internet of Things are sensor based monitoring applications.
Since its development, sensors have become intelligent sensors with information processing capabilities. The sensor family has also expanded from physical data sensors such as physiological and biological data sensors, environmental data sensors, and action pressure sensors to innovative sensors such as biosensors, nanosensors, and flexible sensors.
The development of sensors has expanded the information acquisition capabilities of current information systems, enabling more effective perception of the physical world; On the other hand, by strengthening cloud computing and intelligent judgment of sensor data, information-based decision-making capabilities have been improved, and the application scenarios of the Internet of Things have become increasingly diverse.
In the early stages of the development of the Internet of Things, its application scenarios were mostly for personnel management, physical sign monitoring, and identification and positioning of objects and human bodies. Subsequently, innovative applications such as clothing management, supply chain management, and cold chain management aimed at improving the level of refined management and efficiency of medical processes began to emerge. Currently, IoT technology is playing a role in applications such as early warning for medical personnel and monitoring and early warning of hospital environments. I believe that with the help of policies and technology, the future map of innovative application scenarios for the Internet of Things will become more diverse and abundant.