Research Article - Biomedical Research (2017) Volume 28, Issue 4

Understanding the role of internet of things towards smart e-healthcare services

Introduction: Internet of Things and allied components i.e., cloud, hardware platforms, communication technologies, wearable systems and its challenges are described for seamless integration with telemedicine and e-health.

Materials and Method: Comparison between Internet of things based existing cloud platforms, wearables, hardware, and network technologies are performed to provide clear picture of how these are correlating with current smart e-healthcare services. Percentage and taxonomical representation of parameters are measured by taking various surveyed items. Related technological challenges are visited which shall be taken care of researchers.

Results: 9 hardware platforms, 31 popular internets of things enabled wearables, 15 cloud platforms, and 7 network technologies have been investigated according to specified parameters that best meet their suitability for dissemination of e-healthcare services. Out of 9 hardware platforms Raspberry Pi 3 has maximum clock speed of 1.2 GHz whereas maximum amount of system memory sized 512 MB claiming to be most effective platform to be used for design of e-health solutions. Public, private, and hybrid clouds dominate 6%, 13%, and 81%, respectively. 21 different sensors are found to have used in all 31 wearables. Accelerometer and ECG sensors are the two mostly used sensors having 45.1% and 19.3 % implementations respectively. Cloud, Wi-Fi, APP, and Bluetooth Low-Energy (BTLE) supported deployments into wearables are found to be 38.7%, 25.8%, 100% and 93.5% respectively. Baby and elderly monitor solutions do capture 19.3%, and 16.1% of whole wearables. 38.7% of the wearables per unit price costs more than 250 $. Bluetooth Low-Energy (BTLE) and Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPAN) communications are found to be two most promising technologies for ehealthcare services.

Conclusion: This study inculcates the appropriateness of internet of things in many forms for conjugation with smart e-healthcare.

Author(s): Partha Pratim Ray

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