Connecting Intelligent Things in Smart Hospitals Using NB-IoT

TLDR

The widespread adoption of IoT and smart wearables is poised to enhance medical care quality and hospital management, yet fragmented communication protocols hinder a unified architecture for smart hospitals, a gap that NB‑IoT can address. This study proposes an NB‑IoT‑based architecture incorporating edge computing to connect intelligent devices in smart hospitals and outlines future challenges and directions. The architecture is implemented with NB‑IoT and edge computing, exemplified by an infusion monitoring system that tracks real‑time drop rate and remaining drug volume during intravenous therapy.

Abstract

The widespread use of Internet of Things (IoT), especially smart wearables, will play an important role in improving the quality of medical care, bringing convenience for patients and improving the management level of hospitals. However, due to the limitation of communication protocols, there exists non unified architecture that can connect all intelligent things in smart hospitals, which is made possible by the emergence of the Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). In light of this, we propose an architecture to connect intelligent things in smart hospitals based on NB-IoT, and introduce edge computing to deal with the requirement of latency in medical process. As a case study, we develop an infusion monitoring system to monitor the real-time drop rate and the volume of remaining drug during the intravenous infusion. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future directions for building a smart hospital by connecting intelligent things.