By Mark Bugajski, Paul Moroney, ARRIS
Over the next 35 years, there will be a massive increase in the aging population that will require healthcare, despite scarcer human resources to provide that care. The Internet of Things (IoT) aims to connect medical devices to service providers and create The Internet of Health Things (IoHT). By transforming raw data into actionable information and communicating that information to everyday objects, machines, and people, the IoHT is becoming a vital tool to the healthcare industry. Although the IoHT promises to significantly lower the costs of healthcare to the aging populations of developed countries, the current Internet of Health Things are Over-the-Top (OTT) based, highly fragmented, and challenging for the average patient or consumer to use. Cable operators are in an advantageous position to partner with caregiving providers to create managed networks, use set-top boxes (STBs) as service portals, use STBs as medical devices with a built-in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) interface and utilize condition-specific Video on Demand (VoD). Most importantly, cable operators are able to provide a secure cable network,ensuring that a patient maintains their privacy.