Review of Smart Hospital Services in Real Healthcare Environments

OBJECTIVES: Smart hospitals involve the application of recent information and communications technology (ICT) innovations to medical services; however, the concept of a smart hospital has not been rigorously defined. In this study, we aimed to derive the definition and service types of smart hospitals and investigate cases of each type. METHODS: A literature review was conducted regarding the background and technical characteristics of smart hospitals. On this basis, we conducted a focus group interview with experts in hospital information systems, and ultimately derived eight smart hospital service types. RESULTS: Smart hospital services can be classified into the following types: services based on location recognition and tracking technology that measures and monitors the location information of an object based on short-range communication technology; high-speed communication network-based services based on new wireless communication technology; Internet of Things-based services that connect objects embedded with sensors and communication functions to the internet; mobile health services such as mobile phones, tablets, and wearables; artificial intelligence-based services for the diagnosis and prediction of diseases; robot services provided on behalf of humans in various medical fields; extended reality services that apply hyper-realistic immersive technology to medical practice; and telehealth using ICT. CONCLUSIONS: Smart hospitals can influence health and medical policies and create new medical value by defining and quantitatively measuring detailed indicators based on data collected from existing hospitals. Simultaneously, appropriate government incentives, consolidated interdisciplinary research, and active participation by industry are required to foster and facilitate smart hospitals.