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Running head: IOT AND HANDLING OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENTS

THE ROLE OF IOT IN EFFICIENT EQUIPMENT

MANAGEMENT IN MEDICAL INDUSTRY

2IOT AND HANDLING OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENTS

Abstract

The paper aims at analysing the contribution made by the Internet of Things or IoT in the

management of medical equipment within the healthcare industry. Therefore, the research

paper is divided into four parts. The first part talks about the thesis statement, the problem

statement, the key research question, the relationship between the variables and a structure of

the entire research. Next is the literature review section, which highlights the IoT concept,

importance of equipment management in medical industry correctly and problems faced by

the healthcare organisations for inappropriate management of equipment. The role of IoT in

managing the issues, improving performance, reducing error and proper management of the

medical device is also discussed here. IoT is a technology that enables the medical sector

increasing the accuracy of information management, adequate storage and usage of

medication and medical tests and so on that improves service quality and efficiency of the

industry leading to reduced mortality rate and chances of injury.

The primary research methodology selected for this research is positivism philosophy,

grounded theory approach, descriptive research design. The study focuses on collecting both

primary and secondary data. Therefore, it can be considered mixed method research. The

main research population are the users of IoT for medical equipment handling between the

age group of 25-45. For case studies, only recent case studies are selected. The predictive

analysis method is selected for analysing the collected data for developing a new theory on

the role of IoT in adequate equipment management in the medical industry. The research

focuses on finding the main issues faced by users and the main methods to overcome those

issues.


Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction..........................................................................................................................4

1.1 Outlining the thesis-.............................................................................................................4

1.2 Problem statement-...............................................................................................................4

1.3 Research question.................................................................................................................5

1.4 Theories using a relationship between variables..................................................................5

1.5 Preview of the structure of the paper...................................................................................7

2.0 Literature review..................................................................................................................8

2.1 Theoretical framework-........................................................................................................8

2.2 Concept of IoT.....................................................................................................................8

2.3 Importance of equipment management in medical industry................................................9

2.4 Challenges faced by the pharmaceutical sector in terms of improper equipment

management...............................................................................................................................9

2.5 The relationship between IoT and appropriate equipment management in medical industry

..................................................................................................................................................10

3.0 Methodology:.....................................................................................................................11

3.1 Research philosophy:........................................................................................................11

3.2 Research approach:............................................................................................................12

3.3 Research design:.................................................................................................................12

3.4 Data collection:..................................................................................................................13

3.5 Sampling and population:..................................................................................................13

3.6 Data analysis:.....................................................................................................................14

4.0 Discussion and implication of research:............................................................................14

5.0 References..........................................................................................................................16


1.0 Introduction

The purpose of the paper is identifying and evaluating the role of the internet of things in the

management of equipment in the medical industry appropriately. Therefore, the study

involves an analysis of the needs of the healthcare industry in terms of managing medical

equipment and the way IoT technology can help in this. Healthcare sector requires an

effective process for dealing with medical equipment. However, due to several reasons such

as the high price of the medical devices and a continuous rise in demand for the

implementation of innovative strategies to manage medical devices efficiently are creating

challenges for the medical industry. Therefore, such strategies need to be implemented that

can improve the management of medical equipment besides reducing overall cost and

improving performance. The importance of IoT lies application of which can help the

healthcare organisations monitoring and optimising the performance of medical devices by

acquiring real-time data. Using this technology,healthcare organisations can better plan for

managing the equipment based on their maintenance needs.

1.1 Outlining the thesis-

IoT contributes to the efficient management of medical equipment within the healthcare

industry.

1.2 Problem statement-

Medical equipment has a significant impact on the healthcare sector, as they flounce

performance and expenditure of the industry significantly. Medical technologies provide

several benefits, and the technologies have improved the ability of medical professional to

diagnose, prevent and treat diseases more effectively. They are major components of an

efficiently performing healthcare structure, as they are highly abundant as well as widely

used healthcare items in practice. The quality of service delivered in the healthcare sector can


be measured using the STEEEP criteria means safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and

patient-centred. However, in general, several emerging economies experience problems in

meeting the criteria beaches of limited or unavailability of medical technologies. Medical

technologies encompass various types of equipment and device used in medical facilities that

include medical devices for walking aids, workshop equipment, clinical use and others.

Managing healthcare equipment or technology is dangerous in developing nations because of

contextual issues. As 95% of the clinical technologies used in these nations is imported,

incongruities occur frequently. This is because the equipment is designed in developed

nations without considering the particular demands of the healthcare sector if the developing

countries. Hence, it increases the cost and difficulty of maintaining the equipment properly

(Houngboet al. 2017). In this context, the problems take place in developed nations like the

UK can also be demonstrated here. The National Health Service Litigation Authority or

NHSLA revelled that it had liabilities of £18.6 billion pertain to medical negligence in 2012.

It happened due to many high-risk clinical devices were being used devoid of sign of

sufficient maintenance or training resulted in deaths and injuries. The two major problems

affecting the policy related to the management of medical devices are inadequate training on

using medical equipment safely, managing, and standardising the equipment (Davies, 2019).

The application of IoT can facilitate the monitoring and management of clinical equipment

effectively.

1.3 Research question

As per the aim of the research, the research questions are:

How canIoT help in equipment management in the medical sector?

1.4 Theories using the relationship between variables

The IoT refers to the most promising area that infiltrates the benefits of WSAN or Wireless


Sensor as well as Actuator Networks along with domains of Pervasive Computing. Several

IoT applications have been formulated, as well as researchers have identified the potential as

well as problems and theology standard used in different IoTs like sensors, mobile phones,

actuators and RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) tags (Porkodi&Bhuvaneswari, 2014).

The use of IoT in the medical industry is increased notably around different particular IoT

use cases. Maximum IoT initiatives in medical industry revolve across the enhancement of

care as such with telemonitoring, remote monitoring, and so on. Apart from that, IoT has

been using increasingly for managing healthcare data using applications such as smart home

are, smart pills, RTHS (Real-Time Health System) and robotics. With the inclusively linked

eHealth picture and healthcare, more combined strategies and advantages are required with a

part of the Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT) or IoMT (Internet of Medical things).

Therefore, the time between 2017 and 2020 is regarded as an important phase of the

transition with many variations before 2020. The development in the IoT healthcare apps is

composed to speed up, as IoT is the main element in the digital revolution of the medical

industry and different stakeholders are accelerating their effort (Scoop, 2019).

According to Zhang (2019), with the application of RFIDs, IoT has started finding more

extensive applications in medicine in terms of material management. IoT, together with

RFIDs, can facilitate avoiding problems of public health by aiding in the manufacturing,

distribution and monitoring of medical equipment and medicines. It helps in improving the

quality and effectiveness of clinical treatment and cutting down management cost. As per the

report of the WHO (World Health Organisation), the amount of forged medicines is over

10% of medicine sales worldwide. The Chinese Pharmaceutical Association reveals that

minimum 200,000 Chinese dies every year due to inappropriate or wrong medication. Thus,

RFID technology can contribute to the tracking of medical equipment and drugs and the laws

of the market for healthcare products. Farhat, Shamayleh & Al-Nashash (2018)opined that


the IoT technology could be applied for anti-counterfeiting of pharmaceuticals and medical

device, conducting real-time monitoring, information management of medical waste and

patient information, clinical emergency management, tracking of drugs and clinical tools and

so forth.

1.5 Preview of the structure of the paper

The entire paper is structured with four sections. The introduction is the first section that

clarifies the thesis statement, research question, background and problems statement of the

research. It explains the rationale for researching this particular topic. The second part

encompasses a comprehensive literature review on the secondary data available on the

subject. It includes a critical examination of the previous research paper, journals, websites

and books on IoT and its relation to the medical industry. The third section specifies the

research methods used for collecting and analysing data. The fourth or the last section

discusses the findings and implications of the study.


2.0 Literature review

In this section, the study of existing literature on the research topic is going to be conducted.

The different areas of the IoT and it relates to the medical industry would be discussed here

considering various perspectives of different scholars.

2.1 Theoretical framework-

2.2 Concept of IoT

IoT is a modern insurgency of the internet. It makes objects identifiable themselves,

acquiring intelligence, sharing and accessing information. It enables people and matters to be

linked anytime, anyone, anything, anywhere using any network and service. It implies

addressing components such as convergence, content, collection, communication,

connectivity and computing. The IoT offers interaction among the real and virtual world. The

actual entities have ordinal counterparts and virtual depiction. Things become situation

conscious, and they can feel, interact, communicate and exchange information, knowledge

and data (Porkodi & Bhuvaneswari, 2014).In the words of Patel& Patel (2016), the concept

of IoT was devised by an RFID member, and it is relevant to the practical world extensively

due to development of mobile devices, entrenched and global communication, data analytics

and cloud computing. It is a network of physical objects. These interlinked objects have

collected, evaluated and used data regularly for introducing action, offering a means of

intelligence for planning, administration and decision-making.


Figure 2: IoT

(Source: Patel & Patel, 2016)

2.3 Importance of equipment management in the medical industry

The use of medical equipment is a vital role in ensuring better clinical service in the nation,

and hence, the need for appropriate management of thisequipment is essential. Without

clinical devices, the effective operation would not be possible in any healthcare centres,

clinics hospitals, and as an outcome of paramedics, doctors, nurses cannot do their work

appropriately in saving patients’ lives. In hospitals, where the management of equipment is

absence, the quality of service is poor, that results in a high rate of mortality of the populace.

In developing nations, almost every medical equipment is being introduced, creating a ground

of several challenges experienced by the healthcare sector. Lack of training and education of

the people using that clinical equipment lead to ineffective care of the patients that make their

health condition worse, leading to severe injury and death. Therefore, management of

equipment is critical for avoiding this incident and improving patient safety (Scott, 2017).

Moses & Korah (2015) supported that for enhancing the performance and quality of service

delivery to the service users in the healthcare industry, proper management of medical

devices is critical.


2.4 Challenges faced by the pharmaceutical sector in terms of improper equipment

management

Improper procurement strategy, inappropriate calibration, absence of adequate maintenance,

weak authentication of equipment is the significant issues of management medical

equipment. Despite putting the last effort the World Health Organisation, its guidance and

health policies and the hard work of the ministry of health in each nation, there are several

challenges in managing hospital equipment correctly, especially in rural areas and developing

countries. The challenges faced by the industry in equipment management are more extended

stoppage of the machine, insufficient knowledge of hospitals' administrator on the value of

equipment maintenance regularly, little budgetary and so forth (Scott, 2017). As stated by De

Oliveira, Guimaraes& Jeunon (2017), the scientific investigation is accountable for the

medical equipment management for preventing medical incidents risky to the service users

because of incorrect use of clinical devices. Thus, improper handling of medical equipment

creates poor service quality and patient dissatisfaction.

2.5 The relationship between IoT and appropriate equipment management in the

pharmaceutical industry

In the rising market of innovation and technology. The use of latest technologies and

implementation of quality standard enable accurate diagnoses and fewer errors in medical

treatment with the faster recovery as well as a result cost-effective in the care system (De

Oliveira, Guimaraes & Jeunon (2017). In the words of Zhang (2019), the application of IoT

in the healthcare industry is considered as a boon, as it makes the management of different

medical equipment easier and stress-free. IoT contributes to the management of medical

equipment in several ways. It plays a vital role in anti-counterfeiting and information

verification, offering an efficient counter-assessment against clinical fraud. For instance, it is


possible to convey drug information to a public record from which a hospital or a patient can

check the tag against the registers for identifying possible forgeries quickly. The RFID tags

can be used in the whole production process for achieving comprehensive product

monitoring. It is mainly important when the products are shipped.

As stated by Lakkis & Elshakankiri (2017), a reader can identify the drug information

automatically and convey it to the database after the packaging of the product. At the time of

destitution, any middle information can be recorded as per convenience. Thus, the IoT

enables mentoring every step of database management for avoiding inaccuracies. Some

unusual situations occur, when the inability of reaching to a family member, critical illness

and several casualties. In such circumstances, efficient and reliable storage of RFID and

testing processes help with the quick identification of necessary details including name, age,

emergency contact, medical history and blood types of patients. It makes the admission

process faster for patients with emergency conditions and provides more time for better

treatment. Thus, it helps reducing life risk of patients or death rate. Using the IoT, 3G video

device inside the ambulances can be managed well. I the way of the hospital, the emergency

room already have the information about the patients' condition and requirement. Thus, they

can better prepare for dealing with the patient. If the location is far away from the hospital,

the remote medical imaging system can be used as a part of emergency resource method.

Dongxin Lu & Tao Liu (2011) commented that IoT helps to track and to monitor the medical

equipment and patients that enables automatic call during patient distress. It also helps in to

protect laboratory samples and drugs sensitive to temperature adequately. Thus, it improves

performance by reducing losses.

3.0 Methodology:

The research methodology is an essential element of any research. Research methodological


tools like approach, design and philosophy are necessary to follow for researching correctly.

3.1 Research philosophy:

There are mainly three types of research philosophy present-positivism, interpretivism and

realism. For this research, positivism, philosophy will be taken into consideration. The main

reason for selecting positivism philosophy is that it allows meaningful analysis of the given

situation with the help of scientific observation and logic (Hughes & Sharrock, 2016). The

current research, which is about the role of IoT in efficient equipment management in the

medical industry requires scientific observation of the application of IoT in the

pharmaceutical industry, which involves the use of positivist philosophy.

3.2 Research approach:

Deductive and inductive approaches are the two types of research approaches considered by

researchers in different disciplines. While deductive approach focuses on answering the

research questions by making use of quantifiable data, inductive tries to develop new theories

based on existing knowledge. It means inductive revolves from objective to method

(Gandomani & Nafchi, 2015). For the current research, a thorough investigation is required to

understand the role of IoT inefficient equipment handling in medical sector which requires

not only first-hand data to find out the issues faced by users, but also past experiences. In this

context, the inductive approach fits perfectly. However, the researcher would follow a variant

of the inductive approach, namely grounded theory, which seeks to develop a new method

based on qualitative data collection. Here, data will be collected repeatedly and categories

into codes for making the basis for a new theory.

3.3 Research design:

Mainly three types of research designs used by researchers-descriptive, exploratory and

explanatory. The researcher will make use of descriptive research design that allows


explaining as well as exploring the research topic in depth by making use of methods like

case studies, interview, focus groups and survey (Colorafi & Evans, 2016). To study the role

of IoT in the medical industry, especially in equipment handling, it can be stated the use of

descriptive design would help draw an appropriate conclusion by exploring and explaining

the topic in detail.

3.4 Data collection:

There are mainly two types of data collection procedures present-primary data collection and

secondary data collection. While secondary data collection is about collecting data from

already existing sources like books, journals, government and marketing research reports,

primary data is solely about raw data obtained from human respondents (Creswell, 2015).

Primary data collection is again divided into two methods-quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative is numeric data obtained by making use of a close-ended questionnaire

instrument, whereas qualitative is general data collected through an interview or focus group

interview by making use of open-ended questionnaire instrument (Creswell, 2015).

The current research would follow a mixed method approach applying qualitative data

collection through a telephonic interview with users experienced in using IoT for medical

equipment handling whereas case studies on the same subject will be studied as a part of

grounded theory approach to identify biases between findings. This will allow the researcher

to develop new codes based on the results from different sources.

3.5 Sampling and population:

The population of a study can be consumers, employees or even managers of a company

(Flick, 2018). For a task which focuses on the medical industry and the use of IoT in medical

equipment handling, the main population would be those experienced or are using IoT for

medical equipment handling. As such users need to be between the age of 25-45, which will


allow studying the issue facing by the new and experienced users. The researcher will try to

interview at least 20-30 users differently to collect the data. On the other hand, as a part of

case study analysis, the researcher would take recent 10 cases showing the issues faced or

issues solved by users of IoT for medical equipment.

3.6 Data analysis:

The primary data analysis method proposed for the research is a predictive analysis method.

The researcher has already submitted a collection of qualitative data through an interview,

whereas case study is recommended. Predictive analysis method makes use of historical data,

namely those found in case studies and current data, namely from raw sources like survey or

interview to predict for future events or unknown events (Flick, 2018). This is the main

reason for selecting interview and case study as data collection method so that it can support

predictive analysis method. As a part of predictive data analysis, the researcher will make use

of a set of data analysis techniques, namely t-test, ANNOVA and SPSS analysis technique.

4.0 Discussion and implication of research:

The research will require ethics clearance to complete. As opined by Colorafi & Evans

(2016), including human participants in any form of research requires full consent from the

respondents and the governing body. For the current study, the researcher will need to take

ethics approval from the Federation University, ensuring that none of the respondents will be

harmed either physically or mentally during the data collection process. Most importantly, no

personal information of the participants will be shared. Considerable attention will be given

for keeping the personal data and the responses anonymous.

The researcher has focused on using a full unique type of research methodology to complete

the research, especially the data collection and data analysis. The predictive analysis method

would allow the researcher to find out some interesting facts, especially the technical issues


that the users might face while handling IoT for medical equipment. Further, the relation

between experience, age and education can also be identified. Most importantly, the research

can help in identifying relevant recommendations on the appropriate method for using IoT for

medical equipment handling. These findings would become highly crucial for the field of the

medical industry as the internet of things are being used in a meaningful manner in the

pharmaceutical sector including but not limited to small scale operations to large scale

operations. Therefore, any findings on issues, methods of mitigating the problems could be of

high value for the medical industry.

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