The Record - Issue 18: Autumn 2020

159  PUB L I C S E C TOR It is also important not to assume that every IoT- enabled device needs revalidation or to be privacy-­ compliant. Use the intelligent edge to manage the security of leaf devices (endpoints that aren’t con- nected directly to the internet), route patient data to a privacy-compliant data store (even on-prem- ise) and separate protected health information from device data that can securely reach the cloud without patient-identifiable data. Identifying consistent and repeatable patterns Whether you are part of a medical device com- pany, provider network, or pharmaceutical manufacturer, you don’t want to spend money and time reinventing the wheel. However, in healthcare, corporate growth is often achieved through acquisition. This means you have siloed people building siloed solutions. Furthermore, they often think they are the only ones building an IoT platform. In my experience, this is not the case. In fact, I have introduced teams within the same com- pany to one another, to foster cross-business unit collaboration and standardisation. Through these collaborative efforts, there is an oppor- tunity to build a foundational architecture for the entire organisation that is about 50-70 per cent consistent across all lines of business. This means one tool set, one skill set and one training programme – all of which reduces development costs significantly. Additionally, this enables greater employee mobility within the organisa- tion, which may lead to improved job satisfac- tion and less turnover. In addition, by starting with a 50-70 per cent fully vetted architecture, you shorten development time and speed up the time to business value. Final thoughts: are you building an IoT Centre of Excellence? If you are doing these things today or plan to fol- low some, or all, of these suggestions, you may be on your way to developing an IoT Centre of Excellence (COE). Designed to ensure consist- ent, best IoT practices across the organisation, find economies of scale and shorten time to value, an IoT COE can reduce development costs, offer IoT leadership across the organisation, provide competitive advantage and be the catalyst for innovation and employee retention. Sally Frank is an IoT Advisor for health and life sciences at Microsoft “An IoT COE can reduce development costs, offer IoT leadership, provide competitive advantage and be the catalyst for innovation”