IoT Solutions Crucial for Rural Primary Care Professionals, Patients

Rural primary care professionals ranked quality as a greater concern than access to care in their communities, according to a Healthcare Professionals’ Perspectives on Healthcare in Rural America survey conducted by Walmart and Medscape. With digitization playing a major role in quality care, an internet of things (IoT) solution is an effective option for rural primary care providers. IoT solutions are software programs that integrate multiple sensors to streamline complex compliance procedures and provide digital task management and automated prescriptive insights.

In an interview with Integrated Healthcare Executive, Guy Yehiav, president of SmartSense by Digi, discusses the impact of employing an IoT solution on patient care and operational efficiency.

Can you discuss the benefits of employing an IoT solution for rural primary care professionals, and what challenges does it address?

In rural and nonrural areas, there are similar but different challenges. The similar challenge is that you always want to maximize the care for the patient. You want to make sure that the efficacy of the products are actually at full support. If you think about the past 2 years, the COVID-19 era, we are not yet done, but we are close to being done.

When the COVID-19 vaccine came out I believe it came to nonrural areas first and then later, it arrived in more rural places, but it was still not accessible everywhere. You needed to optimize the outcome by making sure that the vaccine was stored at -72° Fahrenheit and make sure it didn't deviate from the compliance and regulations so that it would be at full capacity, full production, and full ability to prevent the illnesses. In a rural area, these tasks were more critical because not only is the cost so much higher to bring these products to rural areas, the value of maintaining them is even higher.

As to the benefits, let’s think about IoT sensors from temperature, humidity, positioning, in a continuous manner—it's no longer using paper and pen to check and record the temperature at 9:00 am, 12 pm, and 7:00 pm. IoT looks at it as a continuous temperature and humidity so it's always at the right regulations. IoT helped automate all of it.

Now, the root cause of temperature not being regulated could be as simple as the door being open. If you take telemetry data and identify that the door is open, you could say "Hey Jane, please close the door of asset number 2 on the left side in the caravan." And of course, Jane will just go and close it and then the regulation will go back to compliance. And if we've done it fast enough, the product and its efficacy is at maximum capacity.

What about if the asset is about to fail? With the right sensors like smart sensor sensors, you will identify the asset is about to fail and if you will need a preventive maintenance. If you know that it's going to fail, you may even optimize it so you can arrange backup solutions before it fails. Sensors are not just to identify current ambient and current temperature or oxygen and humidity, but it also will help you identify preventive maintenance. In rural areas, medicine, vaccines, etc, are so precious because of the cost of transportation. It's no longer just the cost of the product itself. IoT solutions help maintain the right regulatory requirement to optimize the outcomes.

How have IoTs affected patient care and operational efficiency?

If you think about patient care and the quality of medical infrastructure overall, it's critical the products have been taken care of properly. Going back to the COVID-19 vaccine, let's say that the temperature was irregulated for a few hours, the liquid won’t have a different color or another indicator. You will not know that the medicine will basically become placebo, because you will think that it has the right medical value. But it may be totally placebo at that point, and without sensor technology you might not be aware.

The quality of the outcome is twofold when utilizing IoTs. Number one, nurses and the practitioners do not need to check temperature and humidity 3 or 4 times a day since it's all being done proactively, they have more time to take care of the patient and their schedule. Number two is related to the quality of the actual products that are being served.

From a sustainability and timesaving perspective, the technology of sensing is critical. This is not just because of the actual temperature, but because of the ability to take telemetry data, GPS compliance, and positioning to guide the nurse and practitioners on what they need to do for the best outcome. We mentioned before that in the past you had a bunch of reports and you were actually writing down the temperature, the humidity, and everything else. Afterwards, you would receive a bunch of reports to read. Well, no one has time to read all the reports. And sometimes, the reports would have separate outcomes.

But how about we just ask someone in plain language what they should do to maximize the outcome of the patient, which is what sensing as a service is doing. It's not just the sense ability. It's collecting all these data, compiling it with telemetry type data that is close by, and then computing it to come up with a specific guided action that if everyone follows will result in maximized efficiency and better patient outcomes.

Thank you. In terms of IoT solutions in rural care, what do you think the future of health care looks like?

That's a great question. The automation will get all the way to an extreme. I don't think that will come to a replacing the doctor, but guiding the doctor, guiding the nurse, and creating the critical supply chain that we all live by. In a rural area, the critical supply chain is even more critical because getting there takes more time. The lead time from the time you order something until it reaches you is 7 days, but today with a constraint of supply chain, it could be 14 or even 21 days. Now, the patient care is becoming at risk.

Through the critical supply chain, it's becoming more critical to automate and regulate. The temperature, humidity, positioning, all will be automated to guided actions for the nurses and the practitioner to optimize the outcome. It won’t tell the doctor what they should prescribe, but it's more around servicing the doctor and nurses with the ability to have the inventory just in time, but in the best position of quality and control. It's no longer enough to know that a needle is available for you when you need it, but it's about the sanitary measures that the needle went through until it reached to the consumption point. It's the ability to know a specific needle is the right quality to be used, and the medicine has been taken care of so it has the best outcome.

The automation will be the critical supply chain, not just about where my inventory is, but what the quality of that inventory is, and making sure that it's available for you to use at the regulatory compliance position to have the best outcome for the patient. I think in rural areas, it's even more critical because of the lead time and the time it takes to replenish the products that are needed to execute the surgery or even just the vaccine that they need.

Thank you so much. Is there anything else you'd like to add to the conversation today?

Absolutely. One more thing that I would like to add is something that people forget to think about it. In this generation, it's also about the ability to work. Everyone has an iPhone or an Android phone. You don't read the manuals on how to charge it. You just plug it in. It's so easy. And so, nurses, doctors, practitioners today, they expect that at their work as well. If you tell them, "Oh, I need you to go and check the temperature 3 times a day," they say, "What?" You maintain less attrition. You maintain better collaboration. You maintain a level of happiness, work ethic, when you provide them with what they expect. Everything is automatically provided for you.

As an example, I was at a hospital customer about 2 weeks ago. I asked them, "So, when you recieved our package to connect the sensor, how easy was it?" The answer was, "Well, it's as easy as charging your phone.” You plug it in because we're using cell towers and not Wi-Fi. You don't need to go and configure the Wi-Fi and connect it and get it secured. There's no hardship. You plug it in. You put the sensor where you've been asked to put it, and it automatically provides you with guidance on preventive maintenance and compliance and regulatory guidance. I think that's also critical for the happiness of the workforce, reducing attrition, and get the nurses and the doctors to do what they do best: take care of the patient. Forget about all the assets. It will be taken care of by all the sensors. Just take care of the patient.

About Mr Yehiav

Guy Yehiav is the President of SmartSense by Digi, a leading IoT solution provider to the health care industry. He is a recognized thought leader in retail, CPG, supply chain, and complex manufacturing with a proven track record of success in M&A, Customer Success, B2B enterprise software solutions, SaaS metrics, and AI & IoT solutions.