Connecting Healthcare Analytics to Smart Home Management

Homes are evolving due to the increasing prevalence of smart and connected devices. This trend is particularly evident in home health devices, set to revolutionize the smart-home industry primarily through remote-monitoring technologies. This shift will significantly change our living spaces, allowing many individuals to age in their homes.

Recent studies indicate that the smart-home healthcare sector continues to expand, yet the potential for growth remains largely untapped. This signifies ample opportunities for numerous companies to thrive. Here are the advantages of this technology’s transformative impact on our homes.

Lowered Medical Expenses

Connected medical devices enable ongoing monitoring of patients post-discharge, enhancing home care. Alerts can be sent to the patient or doctor if the patient’s response is unexpected or if treatment adjustments are needed, reducing readmission costs.

Early interventions and treatment optimization from real-time monitoring can speed up recovery, cutting expenses. Real-time monitoring may reduce in-person follow-up visits as devices update the patient’s status. Automation through connected devices decreases reliance on healthcare workers’ time.

Improve Revenue Cycle Management in Healthcare?

To enhance the patient journey in healthcare, technology not only boosts the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of billing but also improves the overall patient experience. From the initial stages, technology assists patients in knowing appointment details and ensures the healthcare facility gathers all necessary insurance information beforehand.

Many healthcare providers now favor digital-first approaches to streamline RCM services instead of traditional phone interactions. Automated reminders via email or text keep patients informed about appointments, and digital tools facilitate preauthorization by collecting insurance details in advance. This automation in RCM software expedites processes and minimizes errors.

Reduce or Eliminate Downtime

Connected devices can facilitate predictive maintenance. For instance, if a machine or device detects an unusual vibration, the IoT software can notify the manufacturer or service team about a potential issue. This proactive alert allows for scheduling a service visit before the machine breaks down, giving the technician an initial understanding of the required actions and reducing repair time. 

Predictive maintenance helps medical facilities prevent inconvenient breakdowns and delays in repairs and minimizes disruptions in delivering medical services, avoiding the need to cancel or reschedule essential appointments.

Generating Data for Diagnostic Insights

In the past, doctors struggled with the lack of adequate data. However, introducing digital systems shifted the issue to an overwhelming abundance of data, which traditional methods couldn’t efficiently process. 

These challenges are resolved thanks to AI and connected medical devices, allowing doctors to manage the data they generate for targeted insights and leverage AI/ML technology to extract these insights swiftly. 

Today, individual practitioners can perform tasks that previously required large teams of doctors just thirty years ago. With such fast diagnostic abilities, doctors are no longer burdened by excessive data, reducing patient wait times and enabling the delivery of quality healthcare more swiftly.

Engineering and R&D Insights

Connected medical devices can support engineering and R&D teams in enhancing innovation. Device data can be shared with engineering to provide insights into usage patterns. This knowledge enables assessment of product effectiveness and identification of areas for improvement. 

Such insights can spark fresh ideas for innovation, pinpoint opportunities for enhancing functionality through software updates or revised components, and streamline costs by eliminating unused features. 

Leveraging a digital thread-supporting product development system like Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) allows engineers to track the effects of feature modifications.

Enhanced Patient and Clinical Experience

Connected medical devices open the door to a more integrated clinical and diagnostic experience for both healthcare providers and patients. Do not make separate visits to various departments and conduct tests in isolation. This will enhance interdepartmental collaboration as patient information flows more readily through the hospital’s internal network. 

Patients can reduce their clinic visits by using in-house monitoring systems that enable their doctors to oversee their health remotely. This leads to fewer hospital visits and less congestion in the clinic, creating an ideal operational environment. 

Additional advantages of IoMT and connected medical devices include:

• Seamless transfer of patient information
• Increased patient control over their healthcare data
• Capacity to self-monitor and evaluate during the early stages of an illness

Read more: Smart home renovation tips for health conscious investors

Enhanced Management of Medical Devices

The medical device manufacturing industry has faced challenges in recent years, marked by slow growth, poor NPS scores, and a lack of alternative revenue streams, leading to stagnation. However, the advent of connected medical devices offers a potential turnaround.

By shifting from the traditional single-transaction model, which demanded significant upfront investments from customers, manufacturers can now adopt a ‘servitization’ approach, leasing equipment at monthly rates.

Additionally, they can provide predictive maintenance and remote troubleshooting services to improve the previously low NPS scores. 

This creates a win-win situation for all involved: manufacturers reduce maintenance costs, clients enjoy comprehensive benefits at a reasonable price, and customer lifetime value significantly increases – a prospect manufacturers are eager to embrace.

Endnote

The healthcare sector is undergoing a complete transformation, fueled by smart technology and digital innovation, which are reshaping the future and revolutionizing the industry.

Written by Billy Guteng. August 29, 2024

Billy is a content writer for Kukun. He was born in France, and has lived in multiple cities around the world ever since. He loves art, design and architecture as well as construction and real estate.