Smart City Technologies for Next Generation Healthcare

A smart city is a municipal area aimed at managing the expanding urbanization through a vast exchange of information using technologies. It is the concept of bringing technology, society, and government together to refine the quality of the living standards of their citizens. As the number of urban areas is increasing day by day and the citizens are becoming ambitious for a living style with a secured environment, the demand for a proper and safer healthcare system with tech connectivity is increasing rapidly. Therefore, the next-generation smarter healthcare receives considerable attention from academics, governments, businesses, and the health care sector through the growth of information and communication technology infrastructure. From the personal level to community level, information and communication technology driven healthcare is becoming the ultimate role player. In this study, we have briefly described the overview of a smart city and its components. Among all these components, smart healthcare is our target component for further studies. We presented current informative views regarding next-generation healthcare system modules such as data collection through mobile sensors and ambient sensors; usability of data processing using edge computing and cloud computing applications; privacy and security of data; and connectivity with other ‘Smart City’ services like smart infrastructure, medical waste management, health education. Finally, we discussed underlying opportunities and challenges so that a path towards the optimization of current healthcare technologies is disclosed.