James Luxford, CTO, PNMsoft12.10.15
In the latest James Bond movie, Q injects Bond with “smart blood,” which he tells the MI6 agent will transmit data on Bond’s vital signs to headquarters no matter where on the globe he trots. The incredible thing is that today’s audience watches this scene and thinks, “Yeah, that could actually happen.”
And it is happening. Imagine a world where patients are diagnosed, treated, and monitored without ever having to see a doctor. This seemingly farfetched vision is quickly becoming a reality. Remote medicine or “telemedicine” is a growing trend for healthcare providers worldwide. And the trend is being fueled by the increasing amount of medical devices that are linked up to the Internet of Things (IoT).
According to a Research and Markets study (Nov. 2015), “The IoT healthcare market is being driven by the rising demand for improved healthcare, reduced cost of care, and evolution of high speed networking technologies and is expected to grow from USD 32.47 billion in 2015 to USD 163.24 billion by 2020.”
Connected medical devices (i.e., devices that are linked to the IoT) can be used to remotely assess and monitor a patient’s vital signs. Examples of these devices include blood pressure, ECG, and heart monitors; glucose meters; and insulin pumps. The data collected can be instantly transmitted to doctors in other locations, who can then review the data and act to treat conditions and respond to warning signs. Doctors can either decide whether or not they need to see a patient in person, or instruct on-site caregivers on how to best treat the patient.
According to a TCS white paper on IoT medical devices, IoT has numerous benefits for healthcare providers and patients alike, including:
- Lowered cost of care
- Improved patient outcomes
- Real-time disease management
- Improved quality of life
- Improved user experience
Of course, not everything is sunny. There are also challenges to be overcome, such as:
- Managing device diversity and interoperability
- Data integration
- Scale, data volume, and performance
- Flexibility and evolution of applications
- Data privacy
- Need for medical expertise
One of the biggest challenges is what to do with the data. Data alone (sometimes too much data) can be confusing to healthcare providers if that information is not intelligently integrated with medical processes. An intelligent process management system (a BPM solution) is one way to answer this challenge.
Use Case: Telemedicine Devices Linked to BPM Solution
A pioneering European manufacturer of telemedicine devices used by hospitals and medical staff has begun to integrate its devices with a BPM (business process management) solution. The medical teams manage processes on mobile devices and tablets using software created by PNMsoft, a Microsoft Gold ISV. The combination of IoT and BPM technology is transforming its business.
This BPM project in the area of telemedicine is multifaceted. It includes the implementation of a process management platform that manages all aspects around the care of hospital patients and the internal procedures for medical staff. Further, it enhances senior management reporting capabilities as well as work allocation and task routing for hospital staff. Moreover, the platform has been integrated with its telemedicine devices for a visual representation of patient data and records.
Fundamental in this BPM journey is PNMsoft partner, Amedar Consulting Group (ACG). Dominik Mazur, CEO at ACG, explained, “Our customer has a 20-year-old history in telemedicine and cardiac telemonitoring devices. PNMsoft has allowed us to rapidly model workflows and build forms on a browser for our customer, enabling multiple users to work on the same project at the same time. What’s more, the integration between Sequence and the telemedicine devices is supporting medical staff and hospital patients to view records and historical data on mobile and tablet devices.”
A BPM solution compliments IoT medicine because it uses the data provided by connected devices to initiate intelligent processes. Such systems are increasingly needed as IoT medicine becomes more prevalent and complex.
The Future of IoT Medicine
IoT is already transforming medical practices and patient care. What does the future hold? Will we live to see a day where patients won’t ever have to step out of their door and most of the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment is performed remotely? Probably. Telemedicine is still in its infancy. As technology adapts and grows, we’ll be seeing more of the decision-making processes move over to the system itself. Intelligent solutions will be able to learn from past history, perform pattern recognition, access millions of pages of research and data, provide advice, and even perform actions independently. We’ll be seeing more advanced care-delivering devices, such as robots, providing care to patients. And we’ll see nano-IoT monitors that integrate with the human body itself (like Bond’s “smart blood”), not just those that are external to it.
Where is the human role in this increasingly systemized world? The beauty of IoT medicine is that the technology becomes an important partner with the medical professional. The system can guide and advise, and leave the most difficult decisions to the experts. Hand in hand, doctor and system will be better equipped to provide easier, faster, and more optimized treatment.
James Luxford is PNMsoft’s Global CTO, responsible for both product strategy and global presales. He works with customers, business and technology partners, and the industry to provide global direction for PNMsoft's Business Process Management product suite, Sequence. Luxford joined PNMsoft in September 2007 from Ceridian, where he worked as a business solutions group manager.