Part of An introduction to Internet of Things in health
What is IoT?
Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of devices and sensors which are capable of collecting and sharing data with people or with other devices, and taking action based on this information.
For this guidance, we have defined IoT devices as the below to remove any ambiguity and set out our understanding of technologies and capabilities in scope of this topic.
IoT devices definition
NHS owned and managed physical objects equipped with sensors, software and other technologies. This includes both devices with built-in connectivity and those with connectivity enabled as an add-on capability.
For devices with built-in connectivity capability, it is assumed they will solely use this capability to communicate and not be reliant on external wireless connectivity. As such, we do not address this type of device in detail in this guidance.
We appreciate that Real Time Location Services (RTLS) capabilities, such as asset tracking and people tracking, are a major element of IoT capabilities and one of the key use cases for the NHS. This document references RTLS where relevant and links out to the detailed guidance already published by Future Connectivity programme on this topic:
Last edited: 25 February 2025 9:35 am