Katzis, Konstantinos

Future smart healthcare systems – often referred to as Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) – will combine a plethora of wireless devices and applications that use wireless communication technologies to enable the exchange of healthcare data. Smart healthcare requires sufficient bandwidth, reliable and secure communication links, energy-efficient operations, and Quality of Service (QoS) support. The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions into healthcare systems can significantly increase intelligence, flexibility, and interoperability. This work provides an extensive survey on emerging IoT communication standards and technologies suitable for smart healthcare applications. A particular emphasis has been given to low-power wireless technologies as a key enabler for energy-efficient IoT-based healthcare systems. Major challenges in privacy and security are also discussed. A particular attention is devoted to crowdsourcing/crowdsensing, envisaged as tools for the rapid collection of massive quantities of medical data. Finally, open research challenges and future perspectives of IoMT are presented.

The recent global COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that the current healthcare system in modern society can hardly cope with the increased number of patients. Part of the load can be alleviated by incorporating smart healthcare infrastructure in the current system to enable patient’s remote monitoring and personalized treatment. Technological advances in communications and sensing devices have enabled the development of new, portable, and more power-efficient biomedical sensors, as well as innovative healthcare applications. Nevertheless, such applications require reliable, resilient, and secure networks. This paper aims to identify the communication requirements for mass deployment of such smart healthcare sensors by providing the overview of underlying Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Moreover, it highlights the importance of information theory in understanding the limits and barriers in this emerging field. With this motivation, the paper indicates how data compression and entropy used in security algorithms may pave the way towards mass deployment of such IoT healthcare devices. Future medical practices and paradigms are also discussed.