Knowledge, attitude, and practice about internet of things for healthcare

Objectives: The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging technology, which appears tantalizing in the healthcare domain. Governments encourage smart city initiatives to explore its applications. To determine knowledge, attitudes and practices of healthcare institutions toward IoT applications it is very important to objectively understand effects, to systematically summarize experiences, risks and barriers, to suggest market- oriented requirements, and to provide inspiration and reference for future smart city initiatives. Methods: We designed a KAP questionnaire about the IoT for healthcare and conducted a survey among municipal hospitals in Wuxi, China in May, 2015. Results: All respondents agreed on the definition of IoT for healthcare and easily obtained knowledge about the new IoT technology. Respondents showed positive views towards valuable functions and preferred solutions with inventory or material tracking, identification and authentication to make healthcare services more effective, convenient, and safe. We have stated that it is critical to solve security, privacy, and standardization issues. Last but not least, we have observed that governmental investments had played a guiding role and promoted IoT applications. Conclusions: The pilot survey has provided important insights into the KAP of IoT applications for healthcare institutions. In the near future, a KAP survey of IoT for healthcare in other cities in China and internationally will be conducted in order to gain further insights.