Access Technologies for Medical IOT Systems

ICT technologies are evolving and advances in the technologies hold promise for applications in diverse domains such as healthcare. Along with the development of access technologies, rapid advances are also taking place in related areas, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and big data. Availing healthcare in the developing countries is costly, time-consuming and, for populations located in remote areas, it also means adding in the cost of travel to nearby towns and cities where expert healthcare facilities are normally available. Leveraging ICT technologies, IoT systems for healthcare can bring affordable and quality healthcare to the population through e-health and m-health applications. The role of ICT technologies is paramount to the success of IoT applications for healthcare. Two such ICT access standards are the 3GPP-based 5G technology and IEEE-based Wi-Fi 6. However, challenges exist in the ecosystem that inhibit the realization of the full potential of these technologies. Based on current and future requirements, the paper proposes a model incorporating key factors impacting an IoT communication system and comes up with a set of recommendations to harness the Internet of things for healthcare.