Medical Internet of Things (m-IoT) : Enabling Technologies and Emerging Applications

Abstract

The recent developments in biomedical sensors, wireless communication systems, and information networks are transforming the conventional healthcare systems. The transformed healthcare systems are enabling distributed healthcare services to patients who may not be co-located with the healthcare providers, providing early diagnoses, and reducing the cost in the healthcare section. The developments in medical internet of things (m-IoT) would enable a range of applications, including remote health monitoring through medical-grade wearables to provide homecare for elderlies; virtual doctor-patient interaction to have any time and place access to medical professionals; wireless endoscopic examination; and remotely operated robotic surgery to extend the access to highly skilled surgeons. Wireless body area networks (WBAN) are key enablers of these transformations. These networks connect sensors and actuators to external processing units, which could be placed on the surface of the patient's body or implanted inside the body to connect specific sensors and/or actuators inside, on, and around the body to the data collection points. The success of these networks highly relies on the advent of low-power, low-delay, reliable, and low-cost wireless connectivity solutions. This book covers recent developments in wireless healthcare systems to provide an insight to the technological solutions (e.g. for body area channel propagation models, communication techniques, and energy harvesting/transfer) for wireless body area networks, and emerging applications of medical internet of things and wireless healthcare systems.