What Is IOMT? (+ Why It Matters)

Keeping up with trends in healthcare and medical research settings is a crucial part of anticipating and serving the needs of medical device manufacturers, the care facilities they provide critical products for, and the patients being treated. Proactively preparing solutions that align with trends is one of our goals as a strategic partner to medical device OEMs.

One major trend in the healthcare industry is the emergence of IOMT. Some reports indicate that “88 percent of care providers are investing in remote patient monitoring solutions” and that “IoMT will save the healthcare industry $300 billion.”

What Is IOMT?

IOMT is an acronym for “Internet of medical things,” a modification of IOT, or the “Internet of Things” specific to medical industry applications. As TechTarget explained, it is “the collection of medical devices and applications that connect to healthcare IT systems through online computer networks".

This includes items such as wearable medical devices that enable remote patient monitoring, Wi-Fi-connected patient monitoring systems, and more. If it is a device related to medical practice that can access and communicate with a care provider’s systems remotely, then it is considered an IOMT device.

Benefits of Medical IOT Devices

Simplifying Remote Care

Doctors cannot assume that patients adhere to their prescribed treatment regimen when they leave the hospital. Out-of-hospital IOT devices make remote patient monitoring easier by tracking vitals, showing if/when necessary medical devices are active, and other data. For example, if a patient is on a negative pressure wound care device that needs to be active 24/7, but they continually shut off the device, their recovery becomes compromised. IoT capabilities allow medical professionals to monitor the device remotely and check if it is online. This gives caregivers better control of their patient’s recovery by alerting them to deviations from the wound care plan.

Increasing Patient Mobility

Putting patients through physical and occupational therapy is a major challenge for hospitals. With the right hospital IOT solutions, manufacturers can help their hospital clients make PT/OT easier. For example, wireless patient monitoring systems or wearable monitoring systems could streamline the process of getting the patient out of bed for PT/OT sessions—saving nurses and therapists time that would otherwise be spent unhooking/reattaching sensor wires and leads or preparing bulky monitoring systems for movement.

Reducing the Risk of Missed Alerts/False Alarms

Patient monitoring is crucial for critical care patients. Missed alerts could lead to lasting harm (and potential malpractice suits) while false alarms waste time and increase stress on hospital staff. IOMT devices can help reduce the risk of missing alerts and false alarms by improving integration with hospital systems using wireless communication methods on top of wired connections.

Improved Collection of Secondary Data

Wearable medical devices that patients can have on them both in the hospital and at home with wireless communication capabilities can be invaluable for collecting extra data about the patient. Data points like resting heart rate, steps taken in a day, body temperature, and more can be captured to help care providers get a more holistic picture of the patient’s health.

Arming doctors with more information about their patients while also giving patients more freedom and mobility during treatment is really the future of medicine and driving these trends in the market.

Get Help with IOMT Device Design and Manufacturing

Meeting demand in the face of events like natural disasters, production hiccups, and supply chain disruptions can be a challenge. Additionally, dealing with any design issues discovered during the prototyping/testing phases of production on a new device can be time-consuming for your engineers—especially when they have other priorities to focus on.

Partnering with a dedicated medical device developer and manufacturer that has production capabilities in multiple countries (such as the USA, Costa Rica, and China) and a team of experienced engineers who can troubleshoot and optimize device designs can help you:

Reduce Costs

By outsourcing labor to regions where production is more affordable.

Improve Your Supply Chain

By having manufacturing space in multiple regions, supply chain disrupting events are less likely to cause significant delays. You can reduce time-to-market by producing goods nearer to where they will be sold.

Collaborate More Effectively

Working with a manufacturing partner that uses an engineer-to-engineer approach to design collaboration can help improve the efficiency of the whole project. Instead of simply sending design specs to a remote location and having to optimize them internally, you can get feedback and support that helps streamline production while improving reliability.

Ready to get started? Connect with ATL Technology below.