| |May 20199CIOReviewtor can study an IoT stream coming from devices accessed via a portal to study the health of the patient. This data stream also helps in deriving the efficacy of drugs and dosage being administered while providing infor-mation on the side effects, if any. Dosage AdherenceA study by the World Health Or-ganization found that as much as 50 percent of medicines are not taken as directed by patients. Non-adherence to the prescribed drug dosage is dan-gerous and could result in loss of life, reduce treatment impact and losses to the industry as a whole. It could also place a financial strain on govern-ment healthcare streams. By means of a unique sensor embedded bottles that could inform patients, doctors or family members in case a patient has taken excess dosage or less than the prescribed dosage, adherence to medication can be monitored. Patient Safety and PrivacyRemote health management enables patients to stay in their homes dur-ing the period of observation/treat-ment. Tele-health provides alerts and informs doctors if any parameter of importance goes above or below the prescribed threshold. Doctors can be consulted through telecon-ference or even tele-presence bots. Data sets stored on the cloud enable historical patient data to be accessed by a physician to better diagnose a medical condition. Evidence-based decision making can be enabled by creating a pool of patient information. Which might include offline records as well as con-sultation information, genome re-cords and clinical research data. This will go a long way in contextualiz-ing healthcare services. For improv-ing patient privacy, the relationship between IoT and pharma needs to be strengthened. With this, IoT-enabled treatment strategies, patient interaction and data management models can be evolved. These are but a few instances of IoT playing a significant role in transforming tradi-tional healthcare practices. With the deployment of more smart devices, there is a huge opportunity waiting to be tapped. Through improved pre-emptive diagnosis and enhanced patient experience, IoT opens doors for newer healthcare models to be operationalized. This will reduce costs and improve the availabil-ity of better healthcare options for the masses. Remote health management enables patients to stay in their homes during the period of observation/treatmentRishi Mohan Bhatnagar
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