This piece in IoT Tech News caught the eye of the Brits in our IoT Connectivity team. It discusses how the UK Government is turning to technology to help diagnose and treat the COVID-created backlog of National Health Service (NHS) patients needing attention – and how IoT is already “enabling better healthcare solutions and services”.
Indeed this is a trend we are seeing across the globe. Intelligent Insider predicts that “the global internet of medical things (IoMT) market is expected to swell to a $158 billion valuation in 2022, up from $41 billion in 2017”.
Intelligent Insider writes that
“The IoT is slowly starting to weave into healthcare on both the doctor and patient fronts. Ultrasounds, thermometers, glucose monitors, electrocardiograms, and more are all starting to become connected and letting patients track their health. This is crucial for those situations that require follow-up appointments with doctors.
Multiple hospitals have started to utilize smart beds, which can sense the presence of a patient and automatically adjust itself to the correct angle and pressure to provide proper support without the need for a nurse to intervene.
The IoT could also help transform patient care at home. Sadly, some patients don’t take their medication in appropriate doses or at the correct times. Smart medication dispensers in the home could automatically upload information to the cloud and alert doctors when patients don’t take their medicine. More broadly, this type of technology could let doctors know of any potentially dangerous patient behavior.”
Telecom26, IoT and the need for always-on reliable connectivity
Telecom26 has been providing IoT connectivity to digital healthcare programmes across the world for several years.
In the case study section of our resource library you can read about how Telecom26’s IoT connectivity is helping to control the spread of infectious disease including COVID, Ebola, TB, Malaria and HIV.
In a nutshell, we are providing IoT connectivity to the ehealth and mobile health services of SystemOne across Africa - Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi Mozambique and Zimbabwe - and in Bangladesh.
From our extensive experience in IoT digital healthcare we know that the success of current and future digital healthcare programmes depends heavily on connectivity – and that there are three major problems that need to be addressed:
- The IoT connectivity challenge
Unreliable bandwidth and patchy connectivity are problems encountered by ehealth programmes across the world, particularly when medical clinics are in remote areas with unreliable telecom networks.
The traditional route is to buy local SIMs to provide device connectivity. Unfortunately, this limits users to one MNO - and adds juggling multiple SIMs across devices to find the strongest local network to a long list of headaches for healthcare providers.
- The IoT device connectivity challenge
The second problem often faced in the rollout of digital healthcare programmes is that far too often the manufacturers of devices leave the connectivity component to the end-user or agency that deploys their device - and may well end up blaming the device rather than poor connectivity for project failure.
However, when a manufacturer decides to take greater control over the connectivity of its IoT devices, it faces another challenge - it may not know where its device will end up and, even if it knows the country and can partner with a particular MNO the device’s connectivity is still at the mercy of one operator with unreliable bandwidth and patchy connectivity very real possibilities.
This again will leave the owner of the IoT device left with the problem of juggling multiple SIMs across devices to find the strongest local network.
- The need for domestic SIMs
As discussed above, wherever a digital healthcare project is rolled out or devices shipped to, local connectivity is required. However, this requires buying and registering SIMs from providers in each individual country – and in many countries you need an address in the country to get a SIM. Yet another headache
Telecom26 - your partner for IoT connectivity
At the heart of Telecom26’s IoT service are our global eSIMs and physical SIM cards.
These can be inserted in medical devices that need connectivity either when they arrive at the clinic, or at the point of manufacture. This means that wherever the medical device ends up, with a Telecom26 IoT eSIM card it can connect to the local network.
So, rather than leaving the problem of connectivity downstream, to the end-user or agency that deploys the device - who may well end up blaming the device rather than poor connectivity - wouldn't it be better to ensure devices natively equipped with connectivity, ready to go when activated in the field?
Just one of our eSIMs in an IoT device:
- Provides access to all of the networks covered by our global roaming service. That’s 1100+ cellular networks belonging to 650+ mobile operators in 200+ countries.
- Removes the need to worry about the coverage of a single MNO, or the existence of roaming alliances. Our eSIMs select the best performing network in the area, cross-border, while providing enterprises with the freedom to change SIM profiles and services with ease.
- Can be customised with routing profiles built for each IoT device according to a customer’s needs and budget. For example, for organisations that are more price sensitive we can ensure that our Global eSIM cards automatically connect to the cheapest service in the area.
In a nutshell, Telecom26 enables data connectivity, anywhere - so that your IoT device can connect to the best available network, regardless of location.
You can read more about our IoT eSIM service here.
And more information about Telecom26’s IoT Connectivity for Healthcare portfolio can be found here.
If you’d like to find out how Telecom26 can help your organisation to embrace the benefits of IoT eSIMs, IoT Networks, improve IoT connectivity and maximise IoT Security please contact us.
Catching-Up In-Person
Later in the year Telecom26 will be attending these major international trade fairs:
SMM
6-9 September
Hamburg, Germany
Mets Trade
15- 17 November
Amsterdam
MEDICA 2022
14–17 November 2022
Düsseldorf, Germany
If you, or one of your team, will be at any of these shows and would like to discuss our IoT and global connectivity services in-person then book a meeting.
