Empowering Healthcare With Cyber-Physical System—A Systematic Literature Review

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) are recognized for their intelligence as they seamlessly interact with humans, enhancing the physical world through computation, communication, and control. Over the last few years, the evolution of CPS, including IoT components, has significantly impacted many facets of people’s lifestyles. It has been immersed in a wide range of services and applications in various areas, including manufacturing, healthcare, and energy. However, the interrelationship between the cyber and physical worlds gives rise to a multitude of research problems and challenges. In the healthcare field, for instance, CPS introduces complexities related to interoperability, privacy, data security, and real-time data processing with critical implications for the reliability and safety of medical processes. To address these challenges and harness the full potential of CPS in healthcare, this paper, through a comprehensive literature review, aims to discuss cutting-edge CPS technologies and solutions that hold promise for healthcare applications. To this end, we propose a comprehensive architectural model that can serve as a benchmark for implementing CPS in healthcare applications. This model thoroughly details how services, components, and technologies can be integrated to transform massive raw data collected from the physical world into valuable information for an enhanced decision-making process. Finally, a use case on healthcare CPS is presented, outlining its characteristics, the role that different technologies have played in its development, and the major challenges in implementing such systems successfully. This study provides a cohesive understanding of the role CPS can play in empowering healthcare while offering insights into the challenges, and future research trends.