A Comprehensive review of ‘Internet of Healthcare Things’: Networking aspects, technologies, services, applications, challenges, and security concerns

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a smart, internet-connected, and omnipresent network. Healthcare is one of the most critical sectors that could benefit from IoT technology. In the medical sphere, the rise of the IoT transforms traditional healthcare services by encouraging technological, social, and economic factors. This study rigorously analyzes various aspects of the Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT), such as networking terminology, enabling communication technologies, services, applications, implementation issues, research challenges, and security-related concerns. Communication techniques under licensed and unlicensed spectra are extensively investigated and compared on various identified parameters for short- and long-range connectivity. The aforementioned aspects thoroughly review the operational and implementation roles of enabling technology. Following a rigorous analysis, multiple research issues and challenges are identified and discussed, along with recommendations to address them. After that, several IoHT services and applications are highlighted and reviewed with a comparative analysis regarding enabling technologies. Additionally, essential security and privacy concerns, along with probable threats and attacks related to the Internet of Healthcare Things, are mentioned in this work. Finally, this paper also emphasizes the future directions of the IoHT domain.