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IOMT and medical device cybersecurity ITJ

IoMT and Medical Device Cybersecurity

Posted on | by Paula Diaz | 6 Comments on IoMT and Medical Device Cybersecurity

Medical device cybersecurity is a term used to classify the tools and mechanisms that prevent cyber attackers from gaining unauthorized access to or control over medical devices and the data they generate. 

What is IoMT?

Smart monitoring medical devices are part of Internet of Medical Things— the types of medical devices that send patient’s information to healthcare professionals via internet connection. IoMT devices allow rapid and flexible analysis of medical data by updating doctors about the state of patients glucose, temperature, or heart rate automatically without having to schedule a visit. 

IoMT is big. According to a recent Deloitte survey, the overall IoMT market is expected to grow from $41 billion in 2017 to $158 billion by 2022. As the Internet of Medical Things industry grows, it is important to be aware of the possible threats that transmitting patient information through smart devices can represent, and how medical devices cybersecurity is protecting and controlling who receives the data. 

Medical Cybersecurity

While Internet-connected medical devices are revolutionizing the way healthcare providers monitor and treat patients, the digital and automatically generated data also creates opportunities for attackers to try to steal highly personal information by executing cybersecurity attacks, holding patient information hostage, or even trying to interfere with the device by controlling it remotely.

Smart medical devices store and generate patient information through the combination of sensory inputs and software. The types of data stored can include personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI) or payment card industry (PCI) data. Cyber attackers may try to gain access with the purpose of withholding valuable information from healthcare providers, hospitals or insurance companies, forcing them to pay a ransom to regain access to it. 

According to the National Vulnerability Database, 18,353 vulnerabilities were reported in 2020. That’s almost 3 times the volume of vulnerabilities reported five years ago, and higher than any year in the previous two decades.

Having a cybersecurity defense plan for medical devices is critical for any organization that uses the internet of medical things, or IoMT, to assist in healthcare operations. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates medical devices and works hawkishly to reduce cybersecurity risks. The FDA shares this responsibility with device manufacturers, hospitals, health care providers, security researchers, and other government agencies.

If the FDA finds a weakness in software or hardware that could pose a risk, it may issue a safety communication: a recommendation with data about the vulnerability detected as well as recommended actions patients, providers and manufacturers can take to protect their information. 

The future of medical cybersecurity

Medical device manufacturers play an essential role in protecting the infrastructure of global healthcare. As we move into a more connected medical future and ensure products are used safely and securely, manufacturers must take an active role in sharing information about the latest emerging threats, new vulnerabilities in technologies, and what patients can do to stay safe. 

About ITJ

ITJ is devoted to serving fast-growing and high-value market sectors, particularly the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), working with innovative medical device companies looking to improve people’s lives. With a unique BOT (build, operate, and transfer) model that sources only the best digital talent available, ITJ enables companies in the US to create technology centers of excellence in Mexico. For more information, visit www.itj.com.

The Internet of Medical Things The Health Revolution image

The Internet of Medical Things: The Healthcare Revolution

Posted on | by Paula Diaz | 5 Comments on The Internet of Medical Things: The Healthcare Revolution

What is The Internet of Medical Things?

Simply put, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is the network of Internet-connected medical devices, hardware infrastructure, and software applications used to connect healthcare information technology. So basically, when talking about IoMT we are referring to a connected infrastructure of medical devices, software applications, and health systems and services.

The importance of IoMT in the Healthcare Industry

Now, since the Pandemic started, we have experienced a growing dependency on technology in the healthcare industry, which demands continuous innovation to deal with the new health dangers. On that note, the IoMT has also increased its importance during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing providers to deliver quality care at a distance. According to a recent Deloitte survey, the overall IoMT market was expected to go from $41 billion in 2017 to $158 billion by 2022, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29.9% to reach $322.2 billion by 2025.

But how exactly is IoMT impacting and transforming healthcare? Here are 3 examples:

Remote patient monitoring

This is the most common application of IoMT, where remote devices can automatically collect health metrics—like blood pressure, temperature, oxygen levels, heart rate, etc. This allows health providers to collect patient data, eliminating the need for physical contact, or for patients to collect data themselves. Also, by collecting the patient’s metrics, algorithms may be used to analyze the data to recommend treatments or generate alerts.

Continuous Glucose Monitoring

For the more than 30 million people living with diabetes, glucose monitoring has traditionally been difficult. The challenge goes beyond the inconvenience of manually recording the glucose levels, the real difficulty is to accurately report these levels as they fluctuate widely, making it complicated to detect a problem. Now, IoMT devices help address these challenges by providing continuous, automatic monitoring of glucose levels in patients. This way Glucose monitoring devices eliminate the need to keep manual records and can alert patients when glucose levels are problematic.

Depression and mood monitoring

Information about a patient’s mood is another type of data that has traditionally been difficult to collect making it harder to identify depression symptoms. This happens because, even if the health provider consults the patient regarding their feelings, it’s hard to anticipate sudden mood swings, not to mention that often patients don’t accurately report their feelings.

“Mood-aware” IoMT devices solve these challenges by collecting and analyzing data such as heart rate and blood pressure, then the devices can infer information about a patient’s mental state. Some advanced IoMT devices for mood monitoring can even track data such as the movement of a patient’s eyes.

The future of Medicine is here 

The advantages of new software development and IT within healthcare are clear as water.  The ability of medical equipment to share real-time data opens up a wide number of possibilities and important advantages for both patients and healthcare providers such as:

  • Improvement of care outcomes
  • Streamlining of Remote Patient Monitoring Services
  • Reducing the cost of care, especially in Post Acute Care Settings (PAC)
  • Access to real-time patient health data
  • Remote monitoring of the health and performance of connected devices

And the best part…IoMT devices are already part of people’s lives. Most consumer mobile devices are now equipped with connectivity technologies that enable them to communicate with IT systems seamlessly.

This means that both doctors and patients can take advantage of IoMT and leverage its potential through everyday devices without investing in expensive monitors that can interface with medical devices.

However, while the IoMT has the potential to help alleviate some of the challenges facing healthcare such as cost, access, and care coordination, this generation of data must turn into actionable insight. 

The healthcare sector must develop new strategies to harness the data collected through millions of IoMT and use it to make their business and operating models relevant and competitive to the new era we are living in.

About ITJ
ITJ is devoted to serving fast-growing and high-value market sectors, particularly the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), working with innovative medical device companies looking to improve people’s lives. With a unique BOT (build, operate, and transfer) model that sources only the best digital talent available, ITJ enables companies in the US to create technology centers of excellence in Mexico. For more information, visit www.itj.com.

Read more about The Healthcare Technology Trends for 2021

The Hottest Healthcare Technology Trends for 2021 and onwards

Posted on | by Paula Diaz | 8 Comments on The Hottest Healthcare Technology Trends for 2021 and onwards

Stating the obvious— technology is an ever-growing reality,  becoming increasingly relevant in our personal lives and every business industry. Now, after a difficult 2020, the dependency on technology in the healthcare industry demands continuous innovation to deal with the new health dangers. Practitioners rely on healthcare tech innovation to improve their practice, from better diagnosis to improved patient care.

At ITJ, we are aware that the healthcare technology sector is rapidly adapting and looking for new ways to improve its performance. That’s why we are strengthening our commitment to investing in process improvements that will benefit and support the tech sector. We want to share with you some of the latest trends that are revolutionizing the world of healthcare and how we understand technology and health today and tomorrow.   

Telemedicine: In-person is so yesterday

The adoption of remote technologies in the healthcare sector has not only been revolutionary but has played a huge part in saving peoples’ lives, helping patients who have limited access to providers to gain easier access to specialists, and for patients to skip long wait times; increasing the quality of diagnosing and treatment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of telemedicine has greatly accelerated, by April of 2020, 43.5% of Medicare primary care visits utilized telehealth methods rather than in-person visits. This trend will likely keep growing in the upcoming years, as most patients are comfortable with telehealth solutions—just in the United States, 71% of patients considered telemedicine at the beginning of the pandemic, and 50% had already utilized virtual appointments. As more and more patients prefer remote technologies over in-person medical visits, it is clear that the Telemedicine industry will have a strong and durable future in our world. 

A.I. as in Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is no longer sci-fi; from facilitating decision-making and enhanced chatbots to drug development, A.I. is revolutionizing the healthcare industry. The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare has the potential to help the healthcare sector in many aspects of patient care and administrative processes. For example, A.I. facilitates decision-making, makes the diagnostic process faster and more accurate, and involves machine learning—which can be used for pairing data across different databases, but also to develop vaccines and medicines with the use of new algorithms. Although one of the greatest challenges to A.I. in healthcare is ensuring its adoption in daily clinical practice, its usefulness and immense potential are yet unchallenged.  

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), much more than just gadgets 

Tech advances have given rise to a new phenomenon: the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT),  a connected infrastructure of medical devices, software applications, and health systems and services, that has an ever-growing critical role in tracking and preventing chronic illnesses for many patients and their doctors. The IoMT has also gained significant importance during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing providers to deliver quality care at a distance. By combining IoT development with telemedicine and telehealth technologies, a new Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has emerged and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29.9% to reach $322.2 billion by 2025.

For more information about the IoMT, visit The Internet of Medical Things: the Health Revolution.

AR and VR are a reality  

As Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) become more and more popular these days, these new technologies have found their usefulness in the healthcare field. AR and VR applications are multiple, providing endless advantages to the healthcare sector; their application varies and goes from medical imaging and interventional radiology, smart contact lenses for low and impaired vision, to VR for chronic pain, making AR and VR a great ally to modern medicine. AR-VR applications in healthcare are likely to grow and evolve over the coming years, with a present need to continuously adapt and learn new technologies, to face current health challenges like COVID-19.

The future of Healthcare is near (literally across the border) 

The future of healthcare is indisputably entangled with technology and Tijuana is an ideal region for that merge to happen. According to Tecma, the well-known Mexican border town is home to a large number of operations that are linked to multinational conglomerates and is increasing as a result of the hatching of businesses across the border thanks to San Diego incubators. Furthermore, the city has strategically used its prime location to take advantage of investment opportunities and become a strategic partner of the U.S. and its tech industry. Lastly, Its proximity to California’s Silicon Valley offers companies a high level of skill with Mexican prices, which allows for more opportunities. 

At ITJuana, we strive to help the San Diego local communities and businesses adapt to rapid growth demands, creating meaningful opportunities by building the most highly qualified IT teams for the Cali Baja region. Our goal is to continue creating technology centers of excellence that help global businesses to seize the unique advantages that Tijuana has to offer—proximity to the US and availability of high-tech specialized engineering teams. 

Conclusion

It is imperative that the healthcare industry become adept with the latest healthcare technology trends to be able to take full advantage of all innovation available. For the medical field to thrive and to continuously improve patients’ lives, the healthcare sector must work hand-in-hand with health technology, and healthcare workers have to embrace emerging healthcare tech to stay relevant in the years to come.

About ITJ

ITJ is a trusted partner in building the finest software engineering teams in the Americas. For more information, visit www.itj.com.