Internet Of Things Grows 40% In Healthcare
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
The adoption of the IoT will transform healthcare as well as require a solid strategy for success.
A Verizon report, State of the Market: The Internet of Things (IoT) 2015: Discover How IoT is Transforming Business Results, demonstrates enterprise adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) is taking off. The report details key factors driving the increase in IoT deployments and includes guidance for business and public sector leaders on developing an IoT strategy.
The report concludes the IoT is being fueled by a mix of technological, political, and social factors which are driving more organizations to adopt IoT-enabled solutions. For example, the use of social media and mobile technology has transformed consumer and citizen expectations. Also, the declining costs of sensors, connectivity, and processing power have made the IoT a more viable proposition to a broader set of organizations. Changing regulatory requirements across a number of industries are also making an impact.
“When you look across the spectrum, IoT covers a multitude of solutions, from wearable devices, to remote monitoring of energy management devices to industrial transportation to improve safety and efficiency. New use cases are created every day, however the business case for IoT and enterprise adoption often gets overlooked,” Mark Bartolomeo, VP IoT Connected Solutions at Verizon, said in a press release. “Within the past year, amid an improving economy, we’ve seen a number of new entrants starting to use IoT as a roadmap to improve their customer’s experiences, accelerate growth and create new business models that are driving societal innovation.”
And while Manufacturing (204 percent) and Finance and insurance (128 percent) led the way in terms of growth of machine-to-machine connections managed by Verizon, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical (40 percent) are also on their way to joining the ranks of the IoT.
Alere Analtyics’ Ahmad Kasmieh explains that the IoT has the potential to bring life-changing advancements for healthcare, along with data challenges to surmount. As Alfonso Velosa, research director of IoT at Gartner told Computerworld, “The interest in IoT is happening now because all the necessary ingredients, the semiconductors, sensors, software, and communications have all come to align us on this path.”
Bartolomeo adds that, beyond these familiar core technologies powering the IoT, formulating a viable strategy and developing IoT solutions can be highly complex. Furthermore, Bartolomeo feels the creation and ratification of industry standards still stand as works in progress.
“As machine-to-machine technology adoption continues to move downstream with millions of endpoints connected, it will change how we see cybersecurity and privacy,” Bartolomeo says. “Our role is to help key decision makers tackle complexities like security head on by encouraging a more proactive posture in order to create value for their organizations while reducing potential risk.”