Connecting intelligent things in smart hospitals using NB-IoT

The widespread use of Internet of Things (IoT), especially smart wearables, will play an important role in improving the quality of medical care, bringing convenience for patients and improving the management level of hospitals. However, due to the limitation of communication protocols, there exists non unified architecture that can connect all intelligent things in smart hospitals, which is made possible by the emergence of the Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). In light of this, we propose an architecture to connect intelligent things in smart hospitals based on NB-IoT, and introduce edge computing to deal with the requirement of latency in medical process. As a case study, we develop an infusion monitoring system to monitor the real-time drop rate and the volume of remaining drug during the intravenous infusion. Finally, we discuss the challenges and future directions for building a smart hospital by connecting intelligent things.