Healthcare comprises hospitals, medical devices, clinical trials, outsourcing, telemedicine,
medical tourism, health insurance and medical equipment. The Indian healthcare sector is
growing at a fast pace due to its strengthening in services and increasing expenditure by
public . There is space for a lot of innovation in this industry in Indian market.
Problem Statement:
Insurance is a growth industry, with a double-digit growth in General Insurance and there is
an enormous market which is untapped. There are so many products and its variants in
Health, Motor and corporate space as of now . Although in order to find new growth
opportunities, there is a need to innovate new products and offerings.
Solution to the Problem:
The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to emerge as the next wave of industry revolution and
many industries are coming along. The healthcare industry is no exception, as innovations
in medical devices, medicines, patient monitoring and much more are rapidly emerging.
So how does it work in the healthcare insurance industry and help Ravi ,Sudhir with a
solution to their problem?
Insurance company will incorporate monitoring sensor-based solutions such as biosensors,
wearables, connected health devices and mobile apps into their insurance products to track
customer behaviour, identify kind of care needed for each policyholder and create a bill
accordingly.
Thus, the IOT based insurance system will deal with the following process:
Monitoring
Since there are sensor-based solutions such as biosensors, wearables incorporated with the
insurance so these can be used to track patient behaviour, activity and habits with the
corresponding sensors in smartphones, wearables, and connected devices. This data will be
collected and consequently analysed for predictive decisioning. This allows the insurers to
create and modify relevant insurance products based on the activity and data received from
the IOT devices.
Caring:
Once the data starts flowing in 24 hours a day, with the help of analytical tools and AI the
insurers can determine which clinical services would be better for the policy holder. This can
be communicated through a mobile application which would also provide the beneficiary to
track his daily activities with data coming in directly from the wearable devices.
Payment: The industrial IoT system ensures that care providers get compensation for the
services they provide to policyholders.
All of this is supposed to transform the way health insurance industry operates. On one
hand, policyholders know better about their health status and on the other, insurers and
caregivers are more knowledgeable about the current condition of the client, which help
them offer personalized care.
What policyholders get:
Many diseases arise from the simple things that people often neglect in their lives.
Unhealthy nutrition, no exercise and poor activity in general, stress can can all be causes for
several diseases. Normally, it is hard to find these factors in patients’ records, however, they
matter much when taking an insurance policy.
For example, if an insurer compares an 18-year-old with a 45-year-old, it’s generally
accepted that the younger is the one who has fewer health issues. But it is quite possible
that the older is more health-conscious and fit and has the lesser health risk and hence,
needs less healthcare expenditure. IOT solutions allow policyholders to avoid generalization
and bed quoted more precisely.
With wearables such as a glucometer or blood pressure monitoring device, it becomes
possible to get real-time data on chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes,
or asthma, interlink it and connect to the daily information on user behaviour and wellness.
This means patients can monitor their health status on a regular basis and be alerted upon.
What insurance providers get:
The main advantage of implementing connected health in insurance solutions is becoming
24/7 involved and aware of policyholder’s lifestyle. The data flow from multiple channels in
real time allows insurers to create and modify relevant insurance products.
In long perspective, the detailed historical data collected from IoT may give some insights on
how specific services affect customer’s wellness and behaviour.
