Internet of Things applications moving into healthcare

From improving customer experience to connecting medical devices to physicians' smartphones, the Internet of Things is steadily colonizing healthcare.

by Shaun Sutner - TechTarget, Mar. 04, 2015 – 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- For Philip Gerskovich, a leading thinker about Internet of Things applications for business, the most attractive benefit of linking machines to other machines, the Internet and people, is improving the customer experience.

And that's true for healthcare too, Gerskovich told SearchHealthIT in an interview after his keynote speech to the Connected Things Enterprise Forum at MIT's Media Lab. Gerskovich is senior vice president of growth platforms at Illinois-based Zebra Technologies Corp., a major player in the Internet of Things (IoT) industry. IoT's best use in healthcare may well not be connecting medical devices or freeing the IT workflow, as much as helping patients and visitors navigate hospitals and other healthcare settings, he said.

"The way the Internet of Things is going to impact healthcare is identifying people as they move around the hospital," Gerskovich said. "The overall customer experience matters."

The Connected Things event at MIT drew a standing-room-only (and sitting-on-the-floor) crowd for the main keynoters and healthy attendance at breakout sessions on three tracks: healthcare, retail and industrial IoT applications.

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