Using Internet of Things to Improve the Sterilization Process for Surgical Instruments in Healthcare

Abstract

The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) brings information advances. Such technological innovations are affecting the world with amazing speed and giving rise to the Internet of Medical Things. The supply center within a hospital is responsible for sterilizing surgical instruments to ensure that medical instruments are fully sterilized and free from infections. Incompletely sterilized or expired surgical instruments will directly compromise the safety of the patients. In the current management of surgical instruments, the control of sterilization temperature and time is completely dependent on manual operation and independent sterilization boiler machines, so it is difficult to detect the failure or error of sterilization equipment immediately. This study is mainly aimed at optimizing the process of surgical instrument sterilization in the hospital by monitoring the completeness of the process of surgical instrument sterilization with IoT sensors. In order to determine whether the sterilization is up to the standard, a high-temperature pressure sensor is placed in the packaging of hand instruments to collect the changes of sterilization temperature and time. As a result, medical equipment managers in the hospital can supply materials and renew expired products from time to time, maintain appropriate surgical instruments and improve the quality of medical services.