IoT devices in use in healthcare applications: A systematic literature review

Purpose: The study aimed to conduct a systematic review focusing on asset management for healthcare with the use of Internet of Things technologies, from this to discuss what equipment technologies and methodologies were involved in the management and tracking of hospital assets. Methods: Researched methods and technologies for tracking internal hospital assets. Questions included asset management methods, IoT's role, challenges in implementing IoT and other devices, and typical requirements. The systematic review used parsif.al and Google spreadsheets, searching databases like IEEE Explore, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Springer Link, and ACM Digital Library. Inclusion criteria focused on articles about asset tracking equipment developed in the last 10 years, used in healthcare settings. Results: A systematic review of 245 articles yielded 44 fitting the criteria. Science Direct and SpringerLink had the most included articles. The years with the most articles were 2014, 2013, 2018, and 2021. Article types found were Case, Framework, Review, Survey, and Implementation, with Implementation being most prevalent. The United States had 14 published articles, followed by South Korea with 4 and China with 5 each, and Spain and Canada with 3 each. Brazil had 1 included article. Conclusion: The study analyzed asset and people tracking articles from 2012 to 2022, identifying challenges in hospital item tracking projects. Framework articles addressed stakeholder management and technology choice. Implementation and simulation focused on validation, using methods like RFID, BLE, WiFi. Difficulties were found in specifying components used in implementation papers. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Brazilian Society of Biomedical Engineering 2024.