A Collaborative Edge-Cloud Internet of Things Based Framework for Securing the Indian Healthcare System

Today, 73 years after the independence and twenty years after the turn of the century, “Health for All” which should have been accomplished by now, remains a far-fetched and an elusive dream. Instead, the people of India are bequeathed a triple burden of disease: sustaining the weight of transmittable infections, expanding burden of nontransferable illnesses, and a healthcare system not efficient enough to handle them both. At present, India is home to one-third of the poor population around the world. After a high population growth rate, unregulated and inefficient healthcare is the major cause for this abjection and poverty. The global position of India vis-à-vis the health indicators like Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Crude Birth Rate (CBR), Crude Death Rate (CDR) and life expectancy is shocking, shameful and on a downward trend. The objective of this paper was to identify the major issues in the Indian healthcare system and offer Internet of Things (IoT) based solutions. The underdevelopment of health and health services in India is brought about by the same determinants that cause underdevelopment in the first place. This paper discusses these causes and major issues responsible for the dilapidated state of Indian healthcare and offers IoT based solutions for dealing with each of these issues. Moreover, a collaborative edge/cloud IoT based framework has been proposed for remedying the Indian healthcare. The presented solutions could be used for making healthcare and thereby, health, a reality for all.