Top 5 IoT healthcare innovations that will impact lives of millions

The IoT continues to accelerate globally making the case for smart, IoT-powered Healthcare look especially convincing. New innovative devices pop up so often that it is hard to keep them all in focus, which is why we issue our own reviews of the market once in a while. Today there are tons of wearable devices that measure steps, heart rate, sleeping patterns and so on but in this blog post we are going to concentrate on those that have a greater potential to save people’s lives and help them mitigate acute health issues such epileptic or asthmatic attacks.

ADAMM

We start our list with a revolutionary state-of-art wearable solution that can be effectively used to keep asthma complications at bay. Unfortunately, the number of people with asthma continues to grow – one in 12 people (about 25 million, or 8% of the U.S. population) had asthma in 2009 in US, half of them had an asthma attack during the previous year. Hopefully, the IoT technology will help reverse this trend.

A company called Health Care Originals introduced a wearable device which comes with a smartphone app and a web dashboard. The device itself is very compact and can be worn anywhere on the upper torso, front or back.

Source: healthcareoriginals.com

Its main purpose is to measure cough rate, respiration patterns, heartbeat, temperature and other body data. By comparing collected data from your body in real time with your normal indicators the device warns you and your family if any of the parameters go above usual. Additionally, it reminds you to take medicine and ensures that you use your inhaler regularly.  Conveniently, there is no even a need to carry a smartphone for the device to function since it can transfer collected data directly into the cloud, which may be useful when using for younger children.

Proteus Discover

Most of the devices on our list are categorized as wearables but this one is quite unique. Proteus Discover is a combination of a small patch, a smartphone app and a digestible sensor that patients swallow together with their medications.

Source: proteus.com

On their website, the company refers to statistics that more than 50% of medications prescribed for patients with chronic conditions are not taken as directed. Using digestible sensors (for example, in the form of capsules into which pills can be inserted) can provide doctors with full visibility into their patients’ medical-taking routines and issue appropriate notifications whenever the prescribed regimen is broken. This tool can be also indispensable for those patients who are prone to intentionally violate medical treatment.

Dia-Vit Watch

Diabetes is one of the most widespread and persistent maladies of the modern world that is changing people’s living habits dramatically, sometimes even from the early childhood. It brings a lot of inconvenience too – starting from regular glucose measurements which require so-called “finger picking”. Patients need to carry around a glucose meter which needs a drop of blood in order to perform the analysis.

However, the company Dia-Vit recently came with a solution for non-invasive blood glucose measurement which is performed by a smart watch. Yes, the idea is very simple but for 400 million of people who are suffering from diabetes worldwide this small tool is one of a big deal.

WINAM

In the United States alone there are 2.2 million people who are epileptic and the level of risk these patients are dealing with on the daily basis due to seizures is immense. The part of the diagnosis requires a recording procedure which takes place in a hospital and often lasts anywhere up to 48 hours. Said that, 50% of patients still receive inaccurate treatment due to insufficient diagnosis.

A company called BIOSERENITY has developed quite a revolutionary device called WINAM, which is basically smart clothing that includes electroencephalography, electromyography and electrocardiogram to monitor the brain activity in real time. The data is then processed on the smartphone and transferred to the cloud where the doctors of your choice can have access to it.

Source: bioserenity.com

Applying big data analytics, BIOSERENITY and their partner research analysts claim to be soon able to predict the seizure and hence dramatically reduce associated life risks.

Vigo

We all know that the driver fatigue is just as dangerous as drinking alcohol before driving. According to the NHTSA, every year there are over 100 000 fatigue-induced accidents. Some of the modern luxury automobiles feature advanced driver assistant systems that vibrate the wheel or make sound alerts when a vehicle crosses the side road markings but they are still in its stages of improvement and far from being available for an average car.

So, how about saving a driver’s life for 99$? This is the price of the new device from Vigo Technologies, which is designed to analyze a driver’s eye and head motion to detect how active he or she is.

Source: wearvigo.com

Whenever Vigo Smart Headster notices that the driver is drowsy, it vibrates, makes sounds, light blinks, and can even call a friend or a family member in order to increase brain activity and overall alertness. A perfect example of a simple, inexpensive, and easy-to-use device that has a tremendous potential to save people’s lives.

Max Bondarenko
Marketing Director at KaaIoT