How Great Ormond Street Hospital is using the Internet of Things

Xbox games, IP addresses on hospital beds and IoT ambulances all on the horizon

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is looking at how it can make the most of the Internet of Things (IoT), with several projects already being implemented, according to Robert Bielen, IT Apps Manager at the hospital.

Bielen was speaking as part of a panel discussion at Computing's first ever Internet of Things Business Summit in London today when he explained that the hospital was looking at IoT as a means to achieve things it could already do using software "but on a more granular basis". He said potential use cases include fridges that can tell repair teams when they are too warm and hospital beds with their own IP addresses so that they can be tracked and monitored.

"With that data you could track the utilisation of the operating theatres, and ensure that all hospital beds are being used," Bielen said.

But what is GOSH doing at the moment?

"We're working with a manufacturer that makes games, and they've got an Xbox game that we're using for neurology and physical therapy where a child gets a game and has to move in particular ways and they can measure how much movement actually happens and this is done in real-time and the information comes into the clinicians," he said.

"They can ensure the child puts their hands on their head five times a day, for example, and we can track this.... That's here right now and it's being implemented in a couple of other trusts," he added.

Another project GOSH is working on will involve fitting IoT technology into ambulances.

"We have difficulty getting information on patients when they are in transit from one hospital to another. Currently, there isn't anything built into an ambulance to explain what is happening during the journey from Cambridge hospital to GOSH, for example," he said.