Despite the numerous challenges, such as regulatory restrictions, security risks, and the need to upgrade legacy systems, the digital transformation in the healthcare industry is gaining momentum. Apart from the changes brought forth by the use of AI and big data analytics, another technology that contributes to a major shift in how we accept and deliver medical services is embedded systems development.
The future of embedded systems in healthcare looks brighter than ever – the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the demand for embedded technologies and contributed to the market growth. In this article, we will uncover how embedded technology is transforming modern healthcare and talk about the future of embedded systems development.
What is Embedded Development?
The embedded technology in healthcare has been around for decades: the EEG, MRI, X-ray scanners, and other medical imaging equipment, pulse oximeters, and defibrillators are familiar to everyone. The advancement of technologies like IoT makes these devices more compact and sophisticated. Portable devices like blood pressure and glucose monitors are now household items, and smart wristbands tracking heart rate, sleep patterns, and vital metrics have already become mainstream. Medical devices that used to occupy lots of space are now shrinking in size, can be worn as jewelry or implanted. Embedded systems also play a critical part in telemedicine, enabling doctors to monitor patients’ conditions from a distance.
Embedded systems require specific software for processing and analyzing medical data obtained through medical sensors. The insights derived from this data should be presented in a clear format, which should be easy to comprehend for both patients and physicians. On top of that, embedded devices and sensors need constant supervision and monitoring in order to organize timely repairs or replacements. VARTEQ is particularly focused on developing complex back-end systems for tracking and controlling devices, medical equipment, and wearables.
Examples of Embedded Systems
Let’s now take a closer look at how embedded systems are transforming healthcare. Below are the use cases for embedded systems that are finding increasingly wider applications in today’s medical services.
Preventive care
The world’s ageing population and the growing number of chronic diseases have now forced many healthcare practitioners to focus on preventive care rather than emergency medicine. The devices that use embedded technology collect and transmit patient’s vital metrics such as heart rate or blood pressure to physicians, prompting them to take action before a patient’s condition becomes critical. This helps to reduce hospital readmission rates and encourages patients to approach their own health proactively.
Glucose monitoring
Formerly, patients with diabetes had to undergo the painful procedure of blood testing every time they had to measure their blood sugar levels. Today, they can insert a smart sensor under their skin to measure the glucose levels painlessly to prevent spikes or drops and take better control of a disease.
CPAP machines
CPAP machines use continuous positive airway pressure to treat patients with sleep apnea, a dangerous condition causing breathing problems during sleep. Using embedded sensors, such machines can monitor patients’ conditions and report to doctors when they have not been sleeping well for several nights. The doctors then may contact the patient and make changes to treatment plans, if necessary.
Fitness trackers
Consumer fitness trackers are getting increasingly advanced and use sophisticated sensors to collect a vast array of biomedical user data. Tracking calories loss, monitoring sleep patterns, measuring daily work out and activity is now a standard package of features for a wristband bracelet. Some wristband wearable use bioimpedance sensors transmitting microcurrents through the user’s body to measure its composition and estimate the state of a person’s health and vitality.
Smart hospital beds
Embedded technology in smart hospital beds notifies nurses if a patient has moved or left the bed so that the nurses know what the patients are doing without having to walk into the room. Using the embedded sensors, the smart beds can also readjust their position to make the patient feel more comfortable.
Clinical care
In the hospital environment, embedded technology helps constantly monitor the patient’s state by collecting his/her vital metrics and notify the doctors and personnel immediately if the patient’s state changes. This helps achieve better outcomes and be better prepared in case of emergencies.
The Future of Embedded Systems
Over the next decades, we are set to witness impressive advancements in healthcare embedded technology — combined with the IoT, embedded development is likely to bring a lot of positive disruptions to the healthcare industry. The medical wearables will automatically inject doses of medications into the patients’ bloodstream based on their conditions. Sensors can also be worn inside undergarments to detect the early stages of breast cancer.
In 5-10 years, babies, born in developed countries are likely to get tattoos containing tiny sensors for tracking their biometric parameters and providing parents and doctors with insights on the baby’s condition. In several years from now, we will be using microbots injected into the patient’s vessels to perform small surgeries or carry tiny cameras to give the doctors a view of a patient’s body from the inside.
Surely, to deliver on the promise of unprecedented technical progress, the implementation of embedded technology has to go hand in hand with many organizational and infrastructure challenges. Some embedded solutions will require custom-developed software to integrate with other IT systems of a healthcare organization.
Read also: How Automation And IoT Are Transforming Healthcare
Looking to tap into the immense potential of embedded solutions for healthcare? Contact us now to schedule a free consultation!