Tracking of Biomedical Equipment using IoT Embedded Technologies: Its attendant impact in Healthcare Delivery in South-Eastern Nigeria.

Résumé

1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Federal College of Dental Technology and Therapy. 2Department of Computer Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. 3Department of Computer Science, Enugu State University of Science and Technology. In this work, we highlighted the merits of IoT in tracking of Biomedical Equipment during and post the Covid-19 era. When the healthcare industry is poorly equipped, and the available medical equipment are not put in optimal use, it results in high mortality rate and low life expectancy of the population. In the beginning of this COVID-19 pandemic, lots of hospitals in developing nations were poorly equipped to contain the rise in COVID infected patients. Tracking of some medical equipment for prompt use became a problem as those that were not in regular use were difficult to be located to attend to patients. A visit to many hospitals in south-eastern Nigeria shows that there are a lot of obsolete and non-functional equipment in some healthcare facilities. Some of the equipment developed minor fault, but the institutions lacked experienced technicians with adequate skills to fix them back to working state. One of the ways to reverse this trend of lack of medical equipment in some hospitals is by managing them properly in order to locate and efficiently make the use of the available ones. This can be done by tracking the equipment for adequate repairs or overhauling and efficiently utilizing them for the purpose they are meant for. IoT technologies such as barcodes, Radio Frequency Identifications (RFIDs), Global Positioning System (GPS) Asset tracking and Near Field Communication (NFC) tracking are possible solutions to the existing poor health technology management conditions in our hospitals. This will put a stop to theft of hospital equipment, reduce wastage of time in locating those equipment in the hospital, optimize routine servicing of the equipment, which subsequently means a reduction in expenditure; as well as trigger a signal for decommissioning of the equipment when it has elapse its full life cycle. Tracking of biomedical equipment in our hospitals using IoT embedded technologies will assist to optimize the use of the available ones. This will ensure adequate health technology management operations in our hospitals, and help in the forecast for developmental budgets in the health sectors of the states in the country; which will result in robust policy making and implementation in the health sector. Key words: Hospital Equipment, Tracking, Healthcare Technology Management, Healthcare Service

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