Key result
Proposed framework converts hospital IoT signals into clinical actions using event contracts and latency budgets.
Why the study?
Although hospital device connectivity exists, converting device events into completed, timely, and recorded clinical responses remains challenging.
This working paper proposes a practical framework for managing hospital IoT device signals, introducing an actionable event contract and latency budget for clinical workflows.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Device-level focus extends AI infrastructure framework; leaves open prospective validation in cardiac monitoring workflows.
This is the second paper in a working paper series on AI-ready hospital infrastructure. The first paper, "AI-Ready Hospital Infrastructure: A Practical Framework for Converting IoT Signals into Clinical Workflow Action" (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21243345), proposed a six-layer operational architecture. This paper works one level down, at the connected device itself. Hospitals now run large numbers of connected devices: physiological monitors, infusion pumps, ventilators, beds, bedside communication units, location tags, environmental sensors. Connectivity is no longer the hard part. What remains hard is converting a device event into a completed response by a named person, within a defined time, with a record of what happened. This working paper sets out a practical framework for that conversion. It proposes an actionable event contract, meaning five conditions a device signal should satisfy before it is allowed into clinical workflow: identity, meaning, time, ownership, and closure. It then proposes four response classes for device signals, separating life-critical alarm conditions from clinical risk signals, service requests, and technical events, on the argument that each class needs different routing rules, a different tolerance for probabilistic filtering, and different escalation behaviour. The paper also introduces the latency budget as a design and procurement tool. Rather than specifying end-to-end response time as a single number, hospitals should allocate it across detection, publication, context binding, routing, delivery, and acknowledgement, then measure each segment separately. The framework is mapped onto standards already in use, including IEC 60601-1-8 for alarm systems, the IHE Patient Care Device profiles for device data and alert communication, ISO/IEEE 11073 nomenclature, and HL7 FHIR. Implementation requirements, procurement questions, governance needs, and the main risks are discussed. The framework has not been evaluated empirically and is offered for testing rather than adoption. Peer review status: this working paper has not undergone peer review.
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Ashish Kumar Singh (2026) studied this question. Practical framework for connected hospital devices was evaluated. A proposed framework for connected hospital devices introduces an actionable event contract and latency budget to convert IoT signals into clinical workflow actions.
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