Abstract
Internet of things (IoT) has improved quality of life and made life easier, more effective, and more productive. With the rapid spread of COVID-19, a need has emerged for technologies that enable countries and their healthcare sectors to confront the pandemic, reduce its spread and infection rate, and find a way to detect it as soon as possible. This research investigated the current status of adopting IOT technology within the Saudi healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research benefited from previous research that suggested solutions to leverage IOT technology to confront COVID-19. Structured interviews with experts from the field were conducted to collect the information for this research. The results indicated that all research participants are taking a clear initiative to adopt IOT technology and have taken some initial steps. It was observed that IOT technology was implemented in closed systems and not shared over the internet or outside a cloud. Privacy and security concerns were raised as major obstacles facing IOT adoption, in addition to strict standards imposed by the Ministry of Health (MOH). Moreover, the results show that COVID-19 can be seen as an enabler to promote IOT adoption. Moreover, participants highlighted many benefits of adopting IOT technology for example: improve advance patient care, provide real-time monitor and real-time data, provide proactive action, and homecare. Participants also emphasized the challenges of IOT adoption: poor infrastructure, shortage of staff and poor experience. Participants also highlighted IOT that awareness workshops can help in effective IOT adoption. This research should serve as a good starting point for further research on a greater scale.
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Alqahtani, M. (2022). IoT Within the Saudi Healthcare Industry During Covid-19. In: Al-Emran, M., Al-Sharafi, M.A., Al-Kabi, M.N., Shaalan, K. (eds) Proceedings of International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Intelligent Systems. ICETIS 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 299. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82616-1_40
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