Rapid Prototyping as a Low-Cost Push Factor to Promote the Adoption of IoT Technology in the Healthcare: A Case Study

Abstract

The increasing demographic aging of people in most countries all over the world, raises the issue of continuously monitoring their health status. At present days there is a big mismatch between the provision of assistance to adults and the actual demand. With advances in low-cost wearable devices, patients are becoming the first source of health-related data of themselves. That is the reason why scholars largely agree that resorting to solutions based on the Internet of Things (IoT) is the best way to provide assistance to senior citizens. Unfortunately, most organizations are behind in the adoption of the IoT. Healthcare is no exception. Previous studies have pointed out that without the influence of executive management, companies are likely to resist IoT adoption. So, the gap to be filled for the implementation of satisfactory long-term care services involves addressing a double challenge: Motivate health managers to invest in the IoT technology and, at the same time, prove the effectiveness of this typology of solution to physicians. This research gives four contributions: (a) it suggests the adoption of rapid prototyping as a tool to arouse interest in healthcare stakeholders; (b) it lists the features that IoT applications for the monitoring of remote patients must possess and which, therefore, must be first implemented in the rapid prototype; (c) it proposes ThingsBoard as the best candidate to build a rapid prototype; (d) it develops a case study that demonstrates that ThingsBoard simplifies and streamlines the development process of prototypes, hence making it a cost-effective solution for IoT rapid prototyping.