What you need to know about the Internet of Healthy Things in Singapore - Part 1

Small is beautiful, agility is strength, and wireless connectivity is easily accessible in Singapore. Ubiquitous Computing is the new reality.

When Kevin Ashton coined the term Internet-of-Things (IoT) in 1999 to demonstrate the potential use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to monitor product movement through supply chain by electronic tagging, he did not realise he was describing the future of today.

Disparate innovations like mobile devices and applications, WiFi, Cloud Computing, Data Analytics, and sensor technology, when thrown together, describe the convergence of technologies that make IoT possible. In a different reincarnation, IoT also realises the concept of “Ubiquitous Computing”, which denotes the concept of making computing appearing everywhere and anywhere, using any device, in any location, and in any format.

In essence, IoT pushes forward the idea of a world of connected devices which uses data collection and communication technologies to facilitate access to digital content and context-aware services.

Today, IoT has progressed from a novel paradigm to a growing technological trend to bridge the gap between the worlds of virtual internet and the reality of physical objects; this is achievable through the integration of the functions of “things” in the real and virtual world.

In the intense search for new drivers for productivity growth, this trend brought forth a paradigm shift in widespread diffusion of information. With the high adoption rate of internet technology in Singapore and rise of pervasive services, the productivity imperative can be augmented in at least three computing domains: home networking; mobile network solutions; and business-on-the-go.

IoT is positioned to extend technology adoption to many currently under-served industries to address the problem of low productivity growth.

In the healthcare domain, information technology has become the foundation of the new productivity source. The introduction of IoT to healthcare systems is critical to the significant growth of medical information systems.

IoT has huge potential in performance, security, privacy, reliability and return-on-investment, however, it will require the medical enterprises and community to take a leap of faith to embrace the converging technologies.

The tracking, tracing, and monitoring of patients and medical objects have always been manpower-intensive, and until recent history, these are difficult problems to automate. These challenges now become the new research direction in application of IoT.

This marks an essential difference in the role of IoT in healthcare systems among other healthcare components, in the emphasis on useful research in present realistic applications, which warrant serious attention.

With the maturing Cloud Computing technology, it makes possible the application of tele-healthcare that provides remote medical services over a larger geographical region.

IoT uses an intermediary platform to mitigate the critical requirement for security compliance, necessary in the integration of healthcare systems with pervasive adoption of new-age mobile technologies that utilise sensor data collection and analytics, wireless communications, interactive digital media, and especially contextual profiling.

Thus, the “Internet of Healthy Things (IoHT)” will emerge to provide for a larger set of patient needs and yet reduce medical costs.

(Subsequent parts of the article will discuss an application case and possible considerations of IoHT.)

Oliver is among the speakers who will be sharing their expertise at the IoT Asia 2014 conference.

IoT Asia 2014
Singapore Expo Convention & Exhibition Centre
21-22 April 2014

Click here to register.