The Role of Internet of Things and Digital Twin in Healthcare Digitalization Process

Among all the work and organization contests, hospitals represent one of the most complex systems and are difficult to manage because unpredictable or highly variable elements coexist in daily routine. In fact, variability plays a key role in the healthcare sector. Operating Rooms (OR) are one of the most crucial environments in the hospital and the way they are run affects many other processes. Medical staff has to note down the various times that represent all the states that the patient has to undergo to successfully conclude the surgery. These procedures are normally made either at the end of the shift or anytime the staff can find some free time. Undeniably, this may lead to human mistakes and inaccuracies. The authors described the application of tools and methodologies borrowed from Industry 4.0 (IoT, Digital Twin, Decision Support System (DSS), Data Mining and System Dynamics) in order to explore better and, possibly improve, the efficiency of ORs. During an 18 days period in June 2018, real time data acquisition was performed in 30 surgeries in an Italian hospital by an independent observer not involved in the patient treatment while the patient’s care providers (anesthesiologists, surgeons, nurses) were unaware of the activity of the observer. The authors demonstrated, through ANOVA analysis, that the use of Internet of Things is a powerful instrument for real time data caption and for avoiding artificial variability.