A Survey of IoT Systems for Critical Hospital Cases

Abstract

The Internet of Things plays an important role in health care, as there are many health applications through which the Internet of things can be used, and the most important of these applications is the so-called telemedicine, as it can be applied in hospitals to track the number of patients and determine the appropriate medication for them, in addition to following the development of the health status of patients. Telemedicine has been certified for its convenience, time-saving, and intelligence features thanks to the development of the Internet of Things and cloud computing. Therefore, telemedicine technology will see further improvements that support communication between clinicians and patients across space and time. In the presented paper, a body of literature dealing with the telemedicine process has been reviewed for many critical cases in which the Internet of Things is being adopted as an essential technology for the treatment and follow-up of patients in hospitals. The most important aspects of this literature are highlighted in terms of sensors, devices, processors and even communication methods used, as well as means of storing and analyzing patient vital data collected from patients to provide real-time interaction. The most important failures and obstacles in this literature have been identified and appropriate suggestions have been made to reach an integrated health care system based on the Internet of Things. The focus has been on several aspects including safety, network traffic flow, and energy consumption for achieving the requirements of smart hospitals and transition to E-health care.