Abstract: The Internet of Things for Healthcare
(Healthcare-IoT) includes medical sensor devices as new
sources of health information, new technologies and
applications for remote diagnostics and monitoring of
patients, equipment, drugs. Smart services for healthcare,
anywhere and anytime, will bring the future of healthcare
services, as a new level of healthcare. This paper considers
the Healthcare-IoT through architectural layers and
observes the users of the healthcare system in the context of
a complex healthcare system which is integrated and whose
traditional healthcare services need to be expanded with
new functionalities of Healthcare-IoT such as sensing,
tracking and monitoring, identification, authentication,
automatic data collection. The technologies that should
enable an IoT solution for healthcare are presented through
architectural layers. The new business model and scenario
should include valuable information in the existing
healthcare services and choose the technologies that best
match the desired model. Sensors and sensor networks, as
well as new technologies, need to enable smart objects of
healthcare to feel and change the environment, implement
activities, communicate in real-time and share information.
The data collected should be reliable, safe, processed in real
time and analyzed, and they should provide a wealth of
intelligence for planning, management and decision-making
in the healthcare system. Many challenges for Healthcare-
IoT, such as the interoperability during the integration with
the inherited systems and electronic health records (EHR),
need to be resolved. A holistic approach to designing
Healthcare-IoT solutions and interdisciplinary knowledge
should remove the gap between individual technology
solutions and the integrated healthcare system expanded
with IoT functionalities.