Wearable technology has become a part of the daily exercise routine for many. Bracelets and Smart Watches can detect how many steps an individual has taken in a day while others can use Sensors to monitor heart rates. This helps people stay healthy by creating a stream of data that allows users to monitor their physical fitness and remain in peak shape.
Looking forward, innovators have started to see how that technology can be integrated into the IoT to improve healthcare for all. The SmartWatch that monitors a user’s heart rate now can, in the future, be linked to a hospital network that can process the data it receives through predictive analytics and address health concerns before they become serious issues.
Currently, one New England hospital found that with a system of Sensors in patient rooms, response time drops to two minutes and sometimes even lower. The Sensor system is situated below the patient’s bed mattress and tracks things like respiratory, heart rate and motion. If vital signs show a dangerous change, nursing care is alerted and can hasten to the room. What’s more, the Sensor system can collect thousands of data points on the individual’s condition in just a couple of hours—far outstripping what a doctor or nurse could monitor over the same period.