More connected healthcare devices are being designed and manufactured to use machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity to improve access to health-related information that can improve diagnosis, treatment and condition management, says telecommunications major Vodacom Business executive head of sales Tony Smallwood.

“M2M connectivity is increasingly being deployed in healthcare situations to allow caregivers to deliver more effective treatment and have access to real-time patient information and information on the status of devices.”

Medical device and equipment manufacturers are investing significantly in manufacturing and calibrating devices that function in a connected ecosystem to provide remote patient monitoring and chronic disease management by enabling healthcare infor- mation to be delivered to practitioners.

Some of the M2M devices can be used in the homes of patients with limited mobility or in remote areas and clinics to monitor vital signs and transmit this data to the relevant physician, healthcare facility or medical aid, says Smallwood.

M2M devices provide patients’ doctors with access to regular measurements of health information to identify trends and warning signs. Data analytics and the meaningful interpretation of this data can enable cost-effective, high- quality diagnosis that creates better healthcare outcomes for patients.

Further, M2M communication enables the remote monitoring of equipment to determine maintenance schedules and asset management.

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nother application for M2M connectivity is telemedicine, which enables doctors and specialists to consult with, and potentially in the future to be able to operate on, patients in remote or inaccessible regions.

“A connected medical industry enables data collection and analyses from many healthcare facilities to determine general health trends and health risks in different areas, and to gain an accurate assessment of the state and quality of healthcare service provision. The positioning of connected devices in the public domain can lead to improvements in the level of patient safety and treatment through better access to data at the point of care. This has a positive impact on the management of costs,” says Smallwood.

M2M connectivity, while currently used to monitor and manage medical devices, can eventually become much broader in scope and can include wearable medical devices for high-risk patients or to measure the use or effect of chronic medication on a patient’s vital signs.

A key short-term benefit is improving the regularity of patient monitoring and the amount of quality information available to doctors to make diagnoses.