Research J. Pharm. and Tech. 11(1): January 2018 ISSN 0974-3618 (Print) 0974-360X (Online) www.rjptonline.org RESEARCH ARTICLE A Survey on Applications of Internet of Things in Healthcare Domain Pfungwa Calvin Mugauri1, Aravind. K1, Apurva Deshmukh1, Fulrani Vhansure1, Kavitha. B. R2 1 Students, School of Information Technology and Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, India Assistant Professor (Senior), School of Information Technology and Engineering, VIT University, Vellore, *Corresponding Author E-mail: pcmugauri@gmail.com 2 ABSTRACT: Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare has gained tremendous appreciation as it has already improved the lives of millions of people worldwide. With the use of sensing devices, collecting data from different environments, devices, and equipment is now possible and appropriate decisions can be taken. Collected data is transferred over the network or internet and is able to be stored on the cloud or physical servers for analysis and future references. IoT has revolutionized the healthcare such that patients can be treated and monitored at the comfort of their homes without visiting the hospital. KEYWORDS: Sensing devices, data, internet, storage, communication. INTRODUCTION: The Internet of things is the internetworking or interconnection of physical gadgets, vehicles, structures, and different things installed with hardware, programming, sensors, actuators, and system availability that empower these items to gather and trade information. The usage of IoT technologies in the healthcare environment has brought conveniences of physicians and patients since the new technology is applied to various medical areas. One of the core technologies in the healthcare system is the body sensor network (BSN) [3]. The applications of IoT in the healthcare industry are numerous but we are going to discuss only four applications namely: real time location services, Hand Hygiene Compliance, remote monitoring and home healthcare. Received on 12.06.2017 Accepted on 05.08.2017 Modified on 14.07.2017 © RJPT All right reserved Research J. Pharm. and Tech. 2018; 11(1): 93-96 DOI: 10.5958/0974-360X.2018.00017.3 1. Real Time Location Services in IoT: Real time location services are useful for doctors as well for patients. It can be helpful in various aspects. From patient’s point of view, the real time location device can be made with some wearable material or using smart phones and also can be installed in cars, motorbikes. It will make use of GPS location tracker to detect the location of patient so that it can inform the nearest hospital about the patient’s ill health [10]. Now a day's smart phones play a key role in day to day life. If the device detects any abnormal activity in patient’s health, it will immediately inform via SMS to some few emergency contacts i.e. relatives as well as the doctor. It becomes convenient for patient by using smart phones and wearable device. The device which will be put on cars or motorbikes will indicate about the accident to the nearest hospital so that the ambulance can reach on time and the person can be saved.[1] For doctors, if some components are missing which are used in surgery or the doctor forgets where he kept the component, at that time real time monitoring will be used to search the specific component. The component will also be adjusted with the location device so that if doctor forgets he can easily track and get the alert message about the component been kept in a specific area. Doctor can also monitor the patient sitting at home using the device. [2] 93 Research J. Pharm. and Tech. 11(1): January 2018 All this information will be stored on cloud as it is a platform where storage space is not a constraint. The real time location device is designed in such a way that it will trace the location of remote areas also. The device will not only be using GPS system, but also different types of sensors to sense and give the results. Moving towards the device, it should give immediate feedback and must be very fast to respond. There might be some challenges such as if some accident occurs and it might be the situation where ambulance is unable to track the person. The device must also make sure of security as well as integrity. By using the real time location service, it might decrease the death rate and it will save time as well as money. patient’s bed without washing his hands, the device would start buzzing. The name of the clinical staff is recorded and statistics are sent to respective authorities for disciplinary action. The diagram below depicts devices with LED in green color implying that all is well or compliant. 2. Hand Hygiene Compliance: The past two decades has seen the improvement of patient safety in the healthcare receiving growing attention. [4].The presence of IoT (Internet of things) has seen traditional hand hygiene awareness campaigns being dropped i.e. posters [4] and new technology being adopted. Fig 2.Sensing devices with LED indicators.[13] In the United States of America, approximately 1.7million people are affected annually which is a ratio of 1 in 20 people. [5] With IoT, there are hand hygiene systems that detect the degree of cleanliness in a healthcare worker. Current hand hygiene tools use battery powered badges and wristbands to control users. In this technology, a RFID electronic system which is capable of monitoring is analyzed. [6].The following tools comprises the electronic system: Wearable passive RFID wristband, a program or software measuring the hand hygiene compliance and a wall mounted dispenser hand sanitizer. [6] Thus in hand hygiene compliance a clinic staff washes his /her hands using some alcohol detergent. The sensing devices have to sense some alcohol to a certain degree. If the sensor LED turns red, it means the clinical staff’s hands are not clean. 3. Home Healthcare: With heath home care, patients can enjoy being monitored and diagnosed in the comfort of the homes, thus eliminating the need of visiting hospitals or specialists. Most of the sensing devices will be planted or embedded in common household objects [7]. Below is an outline of the devices and how they are being used in health home care. A bio sensing chip: The chip has capabilities of sensing the blood sugar level and bacteria levels. It is embedded in a toothbrush. Fig.1 alcohol hand sanitizer.[12] Operations of hand hygiene compliance: The interactions in the hand hygiene monitoring systems are done in real time and if a clinician comes near a Fig 4 .Bio sensing chip using tooth brush [14] 94 Research J. Pharm. and Tech. 11(1): January 2018 hospital, pharmacy and city but also about the security of a person in efficient way.Through monitoring, you can give adequate healthcare to people who are in dire need of help. Every day, lots of people die because they do not get timely and prompt medical attention. Smart bandages: Smart bandages which are made of fibers are able to detect bacteria or a virus in a wound and then recommend appropriate treatment. With IoT, devices fitted with sensors notify the concerned healthcare providers when there is any change in the vital functions of a person. These devices would be capable of applying complex algorithms and analyzing them so the patient receives proper attention and medical care. The collected patient information would be stored in cloud. Through remote monitoring, patients can significantly reduce the length of hospital stay and perhaps, even hospital re-admission. Fig 5 bandage using sensors [15] Smart T-shirts: This will monitor the possessor or one wearing the tshirt vital signs in real time and also available are heads-up displays for glasses. These make use of pattern recognition software thereby helping people remember human faces, inanimate objects, or other data. [8] This kind of intervention is a boon to people living alone, especially seniors. If there is any interruption in the daily activity of a person, alerts would be sent to family members and concerned health providers. These monitoring devices are available in the form of “wearables” too. Let’s see some of activities of remote monitoring, 1) Fitness tracking wearable smart ring: First of all it’s waterproof and technology improved from smart health band to smart ring, feature on LED band for charging and syncing notifications. And it’s main motive is to sleep and fitness, including steps taken, calories burned,distance covered and shares it to iOS Appn. A heart rate of a person by using sensors. 2) Smart socks: This is specially designed for diabeties paitent. We know that, if their legs injured ,it may cause severe infection throughout whole body in future. So we have smart socks to take precaution in such a way that monitoring the temperature of legs and all these information send it on smartphone. Fig 6 Smart t-shirts with sensors [16] Novel hand held: The on the palm devices provide services such as skin surface mapping which is an imaging technology with capabilities of tracking changes in moles . 4. Remote monitoring: Remote monitoring is one of the important application in IOT.As we know that,IOT is nothing but any object or device that has a sensor attached to it ,that can transmit the data from that sensor, further up into the internet,into the cloud where it can be analyzed and used to make decisions. And IOT is not only related to 3) Other health care applications like RFID [radio frequency identification] tagging of patients and family members to improve information about wait times, for registration, for surgery start and exit times. 4) About security perspective applications like smart button for gas stove (which gives alert that your switch is active on smart phone), smart beds (in case of disasters, sense and keep a person secure and to become operation of person in proper & easy), etc. CONCLUSION: We conclude that IOT features into medical devices improves the quality and effectiveness of service by using various applications like remote monitoring, home healthcare, hand hygiene etc. Data is collected from 95 Research J. Pharm. and Tech. 11(1): January 2018 different environments and sent via a gateway to the cloud for storage. Making the use of IOT has drastically reduced healthcare cost and improves speed and accuracy for diagnosis. 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