Technology Applications in Tracking 2019-nCoV and Defeating Future Outbreaks: Iraqi Healthcare Industry in IoT Remote

Abstract

A serious effect on people's life, social communication, and surely on medical staff who were forced to monitor their patients' status remotely relying on the available technologies to avoid potential infections and as a result reducing the workload in hospitals. this research tried to investigate the readiness level of healthcare professionals in both public and private Iraqi hospitals to utilize IoT technology in detecting, tracking, and treating 2019-nCoV pandemic, as well as reducing the direct contact between medical staff and patients with other diseases that can be monitored remotely.A cross-sectional descriptive research via online distributed questionnaire, the sample consisted of 113 physicians and 99 pharmacists from three public and two private hospitals who randomly selected by simple random sampling. The 212 responses were deeply analyzed descriptively using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviation.The results confirmed that the IoT technology can facilitate patient follow-up by enabling rapid communication between medical staff and patient relatives. Additionally, remote monitoring techniques can measure and treat 2019-nCoV, reducing direct contact by decreasing the workload in healthcare industries. This paper adds to the current healthcare technology literature in Iraq and middle east region an evidence of the readiness to implement IoT technology as an essential technique. Practically, it is strongly advised that healthcare policymakers should implement IoT technology nationwide especially when it comes to safe their employees' life.Iraqi medical staff are fully ready to adopt IoT technology as they became more digital minded after the 2019-nCoV crises and surely their knowledge and technical skills will be improved spontaneously based on diffusion of innovation perspective.