The internet of things has a multitude of applications in healthcare, ranging from the personalized data collection from smart sensors and wearables to enterprise solutions like connected peripherals and medical device integration. Its potential to improve organizations’ workflow productivity, reduce costs and increase collaboration, as well as improve patient monitoring and maintenance. Adoption seems all but inevitable for many: a recent study reported that 87 percent of healthcare facilities plan to have IoT technology in place by 2019. 

According to the same report, 60 percent of healthcare organizations globally have already introduced IoT devices into their facilities, making the healthcare the third most advanced industry in IoT implementation — but there are obstacles as well, and many healthcare organizations are still struggling to manage the volume of connected devices and their data as well as keeping such data secure.

Our Health IT Media Coverage and Digital Trends Report explores how the media has covered this topic in the past year, including the publications and writers covering IoT most frequently, companies dominating share of voice, and topics that received the most social engagement. Here are a few highlights: 

• Tech-focused outlets like Silicon Angle, Computer Weekly and CRN are covering healthcare IoT just as (or even more) frequently as healthcare trades like HealthITAnalytics and Healthcare IT News.
• GE, Ericsson and Philips were the pure-play vendors most often quoted in news stories, alongside big players Microsoft, Google and IBM.
• Forbes led healthcare IoT coverage in the business press category, covering both the positive opportunities as well as potential pitfalls, particularly on the security side. Writers Adrian Bridgwater, Bernard Marr and Parmy Olson — all deep on the tech beat — were the most attuned to this topic.
• Overall coverage skewed to discussions about connected devices and healthcare’s IoT market potential.

For more healthcare IoT details and insights, download the report here. You can also opt-in to our blog series exploring the findings.{{cta(‘4d7d14e5-ba7f-42f4-a63f-488cda757c14′,’justifycenter’)}}