article · IEEE Internet of Things Journal
Internet of Things applications in healthcare have improved patient assessment, monitoring, and prescription through internet-based access. However, their reliance on wireless communication and open-area deployment introduces substantial security risks. Patient wearable devices and associated network components frequently use unstructured communication formats to transfer accumulated data, leaving them vulnerable to various security threats. High standards of secure communication infrastructure are required across data acquisition, processing, storage, and assessment, on both client and remote sides. Security vulnerabilities currently remain a primary barrier preventing the widespread adoption of these technologies across healthcare domains. An analysis of theoretical literature published between 2015 and 2023 highlights these unresolved vulnerabilities, establishes core security requirements and challenges for healthcare Internet of Things systems, and outlines future research pathways for academic and industrial stakeholders.
Connected medical devices and remote monitoring can transform healthcare delivery, but patient data must remain safe from cyber threats. Identifying the vulnerabilities present in wearable devices and network infrastructure helps developers and healthcare organisations understand what is needed to build secure communication systems, protecting sensitive patient information and enabling safer adoption of digital health tools.
The work addresses healthcare Internet of Things applications, such as patient wearables and remote monitoring networks, aimed at healthcare stakeholders and industry developers. Because the work is a survey of theoretical literature published between 2015 and 2023 that identifies challenges and research directions rather than testing a specific technology implementation, it is situated at an early conceptual stage of development.
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Internet of Things (IoT) applications are switching from general to precise in different industries, e.g., healthcare, automation, military, maritime, smart cities, transportation, logistics, and many more. In the healthcare domain, these applications had demonstrated an incredible improvement in patient assessment, monitoring, and prescription, etc., with ease of access through the Internet. Despite its benefits, this technology also offers several security challenges for the research community and healthcare stakeholders, because of its wireless communication and open-area deployment. To explore, patient wearable devices and other networking entities follows unstructured communication format to share their accumulated data in the network, which makes them susceptible to manifold security threats. Considering the significance of these applications, data acquisition, processing, storage, and assessment on client and remote sides need a high standard of secure communication infrastructure. Therefore, security of these applications is one of the major obstacles that prevent their widespread use in different healthcare domains. To discuss different security constraints, in this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of the theoretical literature from 2015-to-2023 to highlight the unresolved security problems of this emerging technology. Based on the evaluated literature pros and cons, we determine the security requirements and challenges of Healthcare-IoT (HC-IoT) applications. Following this, we demonstrate future research directions that could be useful for the researchers and industry stakeholders working in this domain. To demonstrate the uniqueness of this work and claim its contribution, we compare our work section-wise with previously published papers to answer the question of reviewers, editors, students, and readers, why this review article is required in the presence of already published review articles.
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DOI: 10.1109/jiot.2024.3360289
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