Is healthcare yet to diagnose IoT potential?

MUMBAI, INDIA: A McKinsey Global Institute report titled The Internet of Things: Mapping the value beyond the hype, projects the economic impact of IoT in human health and wellness to nearly $1.6 trillion globally in 2025.

IoT devices for health include implantables, ingestibles and injectables such as nanobots that can clear arteries or help detect early-stage cancer, the report said. Sadly, these devices have not yet reached the clinical trial stage.

However, when they are ready for widespread adoption, their impact could be as large as or larger than the benefits of the other technologies, enumerated below.

Emerging technologies:

Ingestibles and injectables — smart pills and nanobots — will eventually replace many surgeries with less invasive procedures that could offer faster recovery, reduced risk of complications and lower cost.

"While these technologies are still in development, if they are adopted widely in the next ten years, they have the potential to raise the economic impact of IoT in healthcare beyond the $1.6 trillion," the report said.

Fitness trackers:

The use of IoT technology to monitor and manage human health and fitness is growing rapidly. An estimated 130 million consumers worldwide use fitness trackers today.

The number of connected fitness monitors is expected to exceed 1.3 billion units in 2025 with the rise of smart watches and other wearable devices. Sensors and low-power chips—the basic technology for fitness monitoring devices - are well established, and prices are expected to decline as volumes rise.

Home monitoring:

McKinsey expects rapid growth in devices and systems for in-home monitoring of patients, particularly those with chronic conditions such as diabetes. "These devices have already demonstrated potential to improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs among patients with acute forms of chronic heart failure, diabetes, and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)," the report said.

In advanced economies, some of the greatest benefits of IoT in healthcare would result from improving treatment of chronic diseases. In developing economies, the greatest benefits of IoT applications will be in expanding delivery of healthcare services to the underserved. For example, it will be possible to diagnose hyper tension in rural China, or avoid complications among the diabetics in India via IoT-based services, the report said.

Cost savings:

The current cost for using remote systems to help treat diabetics can be as high as $1,200 a year, which limits their cost-effectiveness. McKinsey estimates that remote monitoring can reduce spending on clinical trials by 10 to 15 percent.

Given global spending on clinical trials of close to $190 billion per year, McKinsey estimated that remote health monitoring could generate up to $35 billion in value in 2025 through reduced trial costs.

Majority of it would come from using IoT devices to monitor and treat illness.

Policy makers should take note:

According to the study policy makers should develop incentives to increase the use of IoT monitoring as part of routine care for specific types of patients.

In the US for example, if public programs such as Medicare agree to pay for IoT monitoring of diabetics, the private insurance industry could follow suit.

"Government programs can also encourage use of IoT by providing incentives for specific outcomes such as paying hospitals that are able to reduce the readmission rate for heart disease patients," the study noted.

"In developing economies, policy makers may need to allocate more resources to improve telecom infrastructure to enable IoT use," it remarked.