Technology continues to disrupt healthcare, transforming patient care, management, and operational administration in hospitals over the past few decades. In this process, the digital health market will peak at $660 billion by 2025.
This uptick in investment in digital transformation is giving way to a new breed of medical institutions: smart hospitals armed with advanced technologies meant to improve patient care and optimize hospital operations and economies. It is not a vision of the future, but the working mechanism of a smart hospital today, equipped with technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and electronic health records (EHRs).
This article will explain what smart hospitals are, show the driving technologies behind these hospitals, and give real-world examples of such systems. Stay with us to learn how to create impactful solutions in this evolving industry.
Understanding smart hospitals
Smart hospitals integrate advanced technologies involving IoT, AI, and EHR systems in patient care, operational efficiency, and optimization of resource utilization to develop a modern healthcare facility.
What is a smart hospital
A smart hospital is a healthcare facility that integrates state-of-the-art digital technologies to further enhance its operational processes and improve patient outcomes. Such hospitals enable the integration of IoT devices, EHR systems, AI, machine learning, and telemedicine solutions, creating seamless and interconnected workflows where data flows smoothly across various layers of the hospital’s infrastructure.
The philosophy of a smart hospital is one of continuous collection, analysis, and action on real-time data to provide personalized patient care and manage the administrative and management parts with more efficiency.
Benefits of smart hospitals
The transformative benefits of smart hospitals improve patient outcomes and position healthcare providers at the forefront of medical innovation and operational excellence.
Enhanced patient care
Smart hospitals are another domain wherein smart devices in healthcare and advanced analytics come together to bring better health management. For example, wearable healthcare devices and smartwatches can track heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation continuously and remotely.
AI-powered diagnostics go one step ahead to support doctors in analyzing patient data to predict complications or recommend personalized treatment plans. In so doing, smart health devices ensure timely intervention is brought about, improving patient safety.
Improved efficiency
Efficiency is a very important factor in the context of hospitals. Smart hospital systems facilitate a smoother functioning of the hospital, right from admission to discharge planning. IoT devices in hospitals monitor equipment usage and track assets, while automated systems manage bed occupancy and resource allocation.
For example, smart healthcare technology can ensure a streamlined patient flow through the hospital, reducing waiting times, and ensuring that critical equipment is available when needed.
Cost savings
Smart hospital implies major cost savings that result from the eradication of operational inefficiencies, as well as minimizing manual tasks. AI and machine learning technologies can predict when equipment needs maintenance, preventing costly downtime.
Telemedicine solutions reduce the need for physical consultations since health professionals can conduct diagnoses and offer treatment remotely, reducing all the costs associated with a visit to the hospital.
Better resource management
Effective management of hospital resources allows caregivers to focus their attention on delivering quality care. Smart technology in healthcare can help hospitals keep track of and manage resources, such as medical supplies, staff availability, and patient occupancy.
IoT devices monitor inventories and can reorder stock automatically when it reaches a low level, ensuring that key supplies are always available.
Better resource management also minimizes the occurrence of medical errors, since all patient care information is concentrated in one platform and available to every care member team.
Key technologies driving smart hospitals
The range of state-of-the-art technologies propels smart hospitals for better patient care, operational efficiency, and hospital management. We will examine these technologies in greater detail below.
IoT and connected devices
Internet of Things plays an important role in the infrastructure of smart hospitals. IoT healthcare devices continuously monitor the vitals of the patient and warn the concerned medical staff in case of any abnormality. For example, sensors attached to the bed can track movement and detect falls. At the same time, wearable healthcare devices monitor heart rate and glucose levels.
Asset management and tracking are two prime fields in healthcare where IoT plays a critical role. IoT devices used in healthcare track the location and status of critical medical equipment within hospitals, ensuring optimal utilization and thus minimizing the chances of creating any downtime due to maintenance.
Read also: Internet of Medical Things: Best IoT Applications in Healthcare
Electronic health records (EHR) systems
EHR systems revolutionized how patient-based data was stored and retrieved. The systems unify scattered patient information in a digital format that can be accessed by any authorized medical practitioner from any location in the world.
EHR systems integrate with other smart healthcare devices to update patient records in real time, based on data gathered from wearables and monitoring systems.
These systems also ensure coordination among various healthcare providers. For instance, the primary care physician of a patient can know about previous records regarding hospital visits, laboratory results, and prescription history for better decision-making.
Read also: EHR Systems: Key Features, Capabilities, and Adoption Tips
AI and machine learning
Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms are key in extracting insight through the analysis of large volumes of patient data for improved health outcomes. In smart hospital systems, AI helps diagnose diseases through medical image analysis, forecasts patient outcomes, and recommends personalized treatment plans.
An example could be when AI algorithms detect breast diseases at an accuracy rate of 99%, leading to faster intervention and better outcomes. AI-powered chatbots also provide 24/7 access to medical consultation by patients, easing the workload of hospital staff.
Machine learning algorithms grow stronger with every block of data added to their systems, making predictive analytics possible in healthcare. For example, AI models can trace patterns in a patient’s vital signs that indicate the possibility of a grave condition and allow for early intervention.
Read also: AI in Healthcare: How AI Changes the Way Healthcare Is Delivered
Telemedicine and remote care
Telemedicine has gained momentum in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when patients searched for health care remotely. Smart hospitals use these telemedicine solutions to enable virtual consultation of patients, remote monitoring, and follow-up post-treatment.
It relieves the congestion in physical healthcare facilities and expands accessibility to healthcare for patients in remote or under-resourced areas.
Read also: Doctor-on-Demand: A Practical Guide to Creating a Telemedicine App
Extended reality (AR and VR)
Extended reality technologies like augmented and virtual reality are used in smart hospitals to enhance patient care and medical training. For example, healthcare professionals use VR in pain management and physical therapy to help patients recover in a more pleasant and less painful environment.
A study conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center indicated that using VR resulted in a 24% reduction in pain scores for patients throughout their stay.
AR provides surgeons with real-time overlays of patient data during complicated operations. For instance, hospitals that use AR during spine surgery can place screws with an accuracy of 97%. Medical training also uses some virtual reality platforms. VR-trained surgeons may perform more efficiently during the procedures than traditionally trained ones.
Case studies and examples of smart hospitals
Many smart hospitals all over the world have benefited from such advanced technologies.
Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester is redeveloping its flagship hospital in Rochester in a $5 billion effort that will be completed by 2030, providing a completely digitized healthcare system while developing software for healthcare as a whole.
The new campus has been designed to blend virtual, inpatient, outpatient, and at-home care into a continuous journey for the patient. It follows that the facility will use advanced technology, such as ambient listening systems that automatically document patient visits. This will help reduce the administrative burden on healthcare teams.
Over 2.4 million square feet of clinical space will be supported by a logistics center in which robots conduct tasks from delivering medical supplies to ensuring efficiency in all daily operations. Moreover, the hospital is working to create a personalized experience with the patients through ambient lighting and preferred music. Furthermore, it is automatically delivering resources so patients can better bear the given treatments.
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic uses AI and machine learning to interpret data from patients and predict outcomes, greatly improving the quality of patient care. The AI model that identifies which organ system the cancer is likely coming from has an accuracy rate of 90%, enabling doctors to detect conditions earlier and deliver preventive care.
This approach helps minimize the length of hospital stays and lowers readmission rates, therefore saving healthcare costs. Besides, the telemedicine platform of the Cleveland Clinic allows for more than 1 million virtual visits annually, while offering patients a very comfortable way of receiving healthcare and avoiding resource strain in the hospital.
Sheba Medical Center
The Sheba Medical Center, Israel, is one of the first to implement IoT in healthcare solutions, hence among the most advanced in the world as far as smart hospitals go.
They employ wearable gadgets for smart healthcare through the monitoring of a patients’ vitals remotely, hence reducing prolonged stays in hospitals and allowing for the creation of continuity of care outside the confinement of a hospital.
The hospital’s IoT system is used to monitor patient information in real time and automatically alert health service providers when anything out of the ordinary occurs. It provides for quicker reactions to life-threatening situations. The center’s digital health platform reduced readmission to hospitals, further improving patient outcomes and resource utilization.
IoT-based smart hospital infrastructure
The infrastructure of an IoT-based smart hospital system includes the basis for operation at various layers that seamlessly work together to ensure effective healthcare. Below is an overview of the key components involved in this infrastructure.
Device layer
IoT devices form the core bedrock of smart hospital infrastructures. Wearables, sensors, smart beds, and other medical equipment collect data and send it for processing. IoT solutions in healthcare leverage these devices for continuous patient monitoring, resource tracking within a hospital, and other automatization of routine tasks.
For example, smart beds automatically adjust on their own according to occupancy and motion from patients, reducing the manual efforts of people within hospitals.
Network layer
The network layer connects the IoT healthcare devices through real-time data transfer among systems and medical staff. It also integrates Wi-Fi networks, 5G technology, and other communication protocols for speed and reliability in data interchange.
A strong network ensures there is no latency in the data transfer, which might get critical during pressing circumstances.
Data management layer
With an immense amount of data generated by IoT devices in hospitals, effective data management is critical. This layer includes cloud storage solutions and data processing tools that collect, organize, and analyze patient information. AI and machine learning algorithms analyze this data to provide valuable patient insights.
These insights include predicting patient deterioration and managing hospital resources more effectively. Secure and compliant data management is of prime concern in light of the sensitivity of medical records.
Application layer
The application layer concerns different software platforms and their interfaces, with which professionals interact to gain access to IoT healthcare solutions. User-friendly dashboards and mobile apps make it easy for doctors and nurses to track patients’ vitals.
They can also modify the treatments and coordinate with different departments as needed without any hassle.
Implementation of custom smart hospital software solutions is critical to creating intuitive user experiences. Not having to wrestle with cumbersome systems helps the medical staff be more focused on patient care.
Considerations for smart hospitals
The main issues to be considered while creating smart hospitals are interoperability, data security, and personnel training in working with advanced technologies.
- Interoperability. One of the major challenges for smart hospitals is ensuring that all the technologies, devices, and systems can communicate. Interoperability is necessary for the smooth integration of IoT devices and EHR systems, among others, in building a comprehensive smart hospital system.
- Data security. Digitization in healthcare is on the rise, and in the wake of this rapid transformation, cybersecurity attacks on patient data may happen at any time. Smart hospitals require robust data encryption and different authentication protocols. Above all, they need compliance with regulations such as HIPAA.
- Staff training. Healthcare staff requires proper training on how to employ smart hospital technology effectively. This involves the use of new medical devices, AI-powered diagnostic tools, and the interpretation of data generated through the smart systems of the hospital.
Bringing it all together
What is a smart hospital? Not a facility featuring new gadgets, but an integrated system where data, devices, and medical expertise converge into one in providing patient-centered care. Smart hospitals will be the starting point for personalized, efficient, and accessible healthcare as IoT healthcare software development, AI, and telemedicine become increasingly integrated.
Are you looking to develop cutting-edge solutions to enhance patient care and operational efficiency in smart hospitals? Our team can help you create advanced IoT, AI, and telemedicine solutions tailored to your hospital’s unique needs. Do not hesitate to contact us to learn how we can assist you on this journey.
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About the author:
Alexey Shalimov, CEO at Eastern Peak
As CEO at Eastern Peak, a professional software consulting and development company, Alexey ensures top quality and cost-effective services to clients from all over the world. Alexey is also a founder and technology evangelist at several technology companies. Previously, as a CEO of the Gett (GetTaxi) technology company, Alexey was in charge of developing the revolutionary Gett service from ground up and deploying the operation across the globe from New York to London and Tel Aviv.
