The Internet of Things is an architectural vision in which devices that generate or consume data are all connected by a single network. This makes it possible to monitor, manage and control processes and functions that were unimaginable just a few decades ago. The IoT paradigm supports context awareness, automation, streamlining and simplifying its use cases.

In the age of wearable medical devices, the healthcare industry has an unprecedented opportunity to revolutionize patient care. Wearable devices offer an opportunity to monitor patients in ways previously thought impossible, which could greatly improve diagnostic capabilities, treatment options, and patient outcomes.

As with all previous opportunities of this magnitude, there are many challenges to address.

First and foremost, healthcare wearables must be secure. These devices are inherently exposed to the same threats as Internet-connected devices. We must protect patient privacy and confidentiality because it is ethically right and there is legal precedent. Malicious actors cannot access, alter or tamper with medical device data. The system must be trustworthy and reliable.

Second, healthcare wearables must be affordable. If they are expensive, the cost of scaling will be high. Without affordability, IoT in healthcare fails.

Third, medical wearables must be interoperable, at least to some extent. Without interoperability, we end up locked into proprietary vendor products. This model has played out many times in history and always resulted in higher cost, lower capacity and ultimately supportability issues.

Fourth, the network supporting medical wearables must be able to scale to any size and bandwidth required to support hospital infrastructure and industry.

If healthcare IoT fails to meet the challenges of security, affordability, interoperability, and scalability, it risks failure.

Addressing Potential Medical IoT Challenges with 5G

Standardization is a key. Standardization has historically been the biggest driver of technology cost reduction and interoperability. This doesn't refer to the devices themselves, but how they interact with the outside world. Standardization of communication protocols and data formats enables multi-vendor products and makes IoT implementation in healthcare easier.

5G cellular technology is a key enabler for the IoT, and I believe it can enable large-scale medical wearables to be part of the IoT. There are many advantages to using 5G in these devices:

• Scale. 5G was specifically developed to support dense networks with a large number of devices. Few other current or emerging wireless technologies can match the scalability of 5G.

• Performance. 5G has higher capacity and lower latency than many other technologies. That means it can support more devices and more data with better performance.

• Universality. 5G is almost everywhere, or will soon be. This is obviously beneficial - no matter where people go, their wearables will be connected. Many other technologies are more limited by geography, require proximity to other equipment or infrastructure, and are not ubiquitous.

• Economies of scale. 5G is being developed to support tens of billions of users. Low-cost 5G modems for wearables will increasingly become available at lower cost.

• Standardization. 5G is a standards-based technology developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). That's why your phone works wherever you use it. A phone can interoperate with all 5G networks it encounters because they are all developed to the same standards.

Looking ahead to 5G and the Internet of Medical Things

5G for healthcare wearables is obvious. It can't solve every challenge presented by healthcare IoT on its own, but it does start to help solve several big ones. The biggest challenge is that most wearable devices today connect to the wearer's mobile device via short-range technologies such as Bluetooth.

5G adoption will require a paradigm shift. But the shift makes sense, not only for device makers, but also for healthcare providers and ordinary consumers. This is inevitable.

Under the current model, health data from wearables is typically first transmitted to an app on a phone via short-range technology. The phone's app, if configured to do so, can then share the data with the Internet-based data store over the cellular network.

If wearables have 5G, it will reduce processing time. Wearable devices can now communicate directly with internet-based data stores, which can still be accessed by phone-based apps over the cellular network. This information is also more readily available to authorized third parties. Additionally, this sensitive health data is now only transmitted on the more secure 5G network, rather than across multiple devices.

Furthermore, there is a path to future features and improved performance thanks to the strong standardization support of 5G technology. 3GPP is constantly developing new cellular standards with new features and performance capabilities, often requiring no terminal equipment upgrades.

5G applications in the healthcare wearable industry are just around the corner. Embedded 5G chipsets are getting cheaper, so it will increasingly make financial sense. 5G at least partially addresses most of the biggest challenges facing the Internet of Medical Things and large-scale medical wearables.

5G is unlikely to completely replace other existing wireless technologies that wearables already use. Instead, I think 5G can be complementary and can coexist with other wireless technologies for a win-win situation. I think this adoption will start in the near future. It may start slowly, but within five years, there will be plenty of 5G-enabled devices on the market.