Big Data and IoT Can Solve Some Difficult Medical Problems

3 min read

Big data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) can help solve some of the most challenging medical problems that we are currently facing as a society. Like any industry, the medical field can benefit from more efficiency introduced by big data analytics and IoT. For physicians, the two technologies would ensure that patients are treated faster and with more accuracy.

In this regard, the physicians can access refined data faster and apply it in real time. With such tools, it would have a chain of effects such as more patient service, less medical mistakes, faster recovery times, fewer misdiagnoses, less fatalities and an overall healthier society. Overall, physicians would only worry about the condition of the devices in use.

Using IoT and big data analytics would make it possible for doctors to reach important milestones in medical areas that have often presented serious challenges. These include genetic data sequencing, comparative diagnosis across a worldwide spectrum and cross-examination of response to treatment across millions of data records collected from all over the world.

The IoT can be used to solve some convenience problems in our medical fields since it allows the medical practitioners to focus on other pressing issues that cannot be handled by machines. IoT can create and sustain knowledge networks among interconnected devices with fully-functional feedback and looping systems that allow various adjustments to be made with minimal input from the physician.  For instance, IoT can be used to monitor a patient’s condition if the necessary devices are interconnected and capable of sharing accurate real time data and triggering the correct corrective measures. IoT could potentially allow a physician to afford more time to take care of other patients. Diagnosis is one of the most time-consuming activities that most general physicians need to undertake.

With IoT, the doctor is free to handle more patients while IoT takes care of monitoring the patients that are already under treatment. As is common with such scenarios, the doctor only needs to  monitor the patient’s condition via a representative such as a nurse to prevent malfunction and potential harm to a patient. Unlike IoT, big data collects information from people’s behaviors and directs the correct feedback to the system. The integration of big data in homes was traditionally known as automation as depicted in devices such as thermostats and smart bathrooms. Patients suffering from acute illnesses may require to monitoring by physicians or other caretakers for extended periods of time. In most cases, these patients will be accommodated in special centers due to the burden.

With IoT, it is possible to provide such care at home using big data analytics wearables such as proximity sensors and blood pressure monitors. The information does not necessarily need to be transmitted over to the doctor. Instead, it can be collected on a cloud and compared with the patient’s diagnosis.

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Yves Mulkers

Yves Mulkers is the founder of 7wData and a widely followed voice in the data and AI community. He curates the 7wData and AI Beat newsletters, reaching hundreds of thousands of data and AI professionals, and writes on data strategy, analytics, AI, and the evolving data ecosystem.