Invasive IoT: The Internet of Bodies

Brain interfaces may be a future goal but, here and now, WiFi devices are increasingly becoming integral to the delivery of quality healthcare. Common devices such as sleep trackers and heart monitors are a reality but researchers at The Rand Corporation, a think-tank, want to take the link between humans and machines a step further – literally.

Swallow and Collect

They imagine an era of the Internet of Bodies: a range of devices that can be implanted, swallowed or worn in order to collect and transmit data about our physical states over the internet. The result will be a huge amount of health-related data that could improve human well being and prove crucial in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

VivaLNK, a startup based in Silicon Valley, for instance, has developed smart thermometers marketed under the brand name Fever Scout. Unlike traditional thermometers, which usually involve long tubes, VivaLNK has created peel-and-stick thermoratchets that connect via a smartphone app and have already received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in the US. The company believes its product is especially suitable for monitoring child patients.

IoT Gets Physical: From AR contact lenses to artificial pancreas and Bluetooth connected diapers: No part of the human body will remain untouches by IoB technology, says RAND. (source ©: RAND Corporation)

For health professionals, the Internet of Bodies opens the gate to a new era of effective monitoring and treatment. In 2017, the US Federal Drug Administration approved the first use of digital pills in the United States. Digital pills contain tiny, ingestible sensors as well as medicine. Once swallowed, the sensor is acti-vated in the patient’s stomach and transmits data to a smartphone or other devices.

Virtual Rehab

In 2018, Kaiser Permanente, a healthcare provider in California, started a virtual rehab programme for patients recovering from heart attacks. The patients shared their data with their care providers through a smartwatch, allowing for better monitoring and a closer, more continuous relationship between patient and doctor. Thanks to this innovation, the completion rate of the rehab programme rose from less than 50 percent to 87 percent, accompanied by a fall in the readmission rate and programme cost.

Not Just a Patch-over: VivaLnk, a Santa Clara-based connected health startup, has received FDA clearance for its first device, a peel-and-stick patch thermometer for children called Fever Scout. (source ©: Wareable Ltd)

Scientists at The Rand Corporation are studying the rapid growth of this technology, as well as the broad privacy and policy issues these developments raise. In particular, they are trying to assess the benefits and risks, the regulatory picture, and how best to balance risks and re-wards going forward.

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