Revolutionizing Medical Data Transmission with IoMT: A Comprehensive Survey of Wireless Communication Solutions and Future Directions

TL;DR

The paper tackles the urgent need for reliable, secure, low-latency medical data transmission in IoMT amidst an aging global population. It adopts a wireless-communication-centric lens, introducing a three-tier IoMT architecture and detailing intra-WBAN, inter-WBAN, and beyond-WBAN data flows. Key contributions include mapping four application domains (remote monitoring, remote treatment, enhanced clinic care, and smart ICU) to concrete transmission processes, and proposing 5G-era techniques (RSMA, MEC, IRS, PLS) to address privacy, lifetime, interference, and processing challenges. The work provides a foundational guide for researchers and practitioners to design interoperable, scalable IoMT systems with practical implications for patient outcomes and healthcare efficiency.

Abstract

Traditional hospital-based medical examination methods face unprecedented challenges due to the aging global population. The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), an advanced extension of the Internet of Things (IoT) tailored for the medical field, offers a transformative solution for delivering medical care. IoMT consists of interconnected medical devices that collect and transmit patients' vital signs online. This data can be analyzed to identify potential health issues, support medical decision-making, enhance patient outcomes, and streamline healthcare operations. Additionally, IoMT helps individuals make informed decisions about their health and fitness. There is a natural synergy with emerging communication technologies to ensure the secure and timely transmission of medical data. This paper presents the first comprehensive tutorial on cutting-edge IoMT research focusing on wireless communication-based solutions. It introduces a systematic three-tier framework to analyze IoMT networks and identify application scenarios. The paper examines the medical data transmission process, including intra-wireless Body Area Networks (WBAN), inter-WBAN, and beyond-WBAN communications. It also discusses the challenges of implementing IoMT applications, such as the longevity of biosensors, co-channel interference management, information security, and data processing delays. Proposed solutions to these challenges are explored from a wireless communication perspective, and future research directions are outlined. The survey concludes with a summary of key findings and insights.

Figures (6)

• Figure 1: Organization of the present paper.
• Figure 2: A three IoMT network architecture.
• Figure 3: Several application cases in IoMT.
• Figure 4: Data transmission process of remote health monitoring systems.
• Figure 5: An artificial noise-aided uplink secure network, where EUs and LUs denote eavesdropping users and legitimate users, respectively.