Significant advancements in the Internet of Things (IoT) have generated extensive opportunities for innovation across both academic and industrial communities, particularly in the health care field. Due to the exponential growth of wearable devices and mobile apps, a promising trend is the exploding role of the Internet-of-Things (IoT)—transforming the traditional hubs of healthcare, such as hospitals and clinics, to personalized health care systems, especially in the mobile environment. Current research in IoT-enabled health care is highly interdisciplinary, involving methodologies from computer science, engineering, information science, behavioral science, decision science, as well as many applied areas in medicine and public health.

A promising trend in these studies is the development of sophisticated techniques that will enable: (i) Cost-effective wearable biomedical devices. (ii) A highly secured, privacy-protected and trustworthy health care system. (iii) The effective and efficient analysis of long-term health data for supporting wise clinical decision-making. Many researchers have recently accepted the assignment of IoT-enabled system architectures into a four-layer organizational structure: sensing, networking, data processing and application.

It is of great importance to study informatics methods in each layer, seeking ways to empower successfully the utility of IoT enabled technology in healthcare. Such work is associated with issues in the areas of smart sensing technologies, network communication and data mining. In the long term, innovative informatics methodologies in IoT-enabled health care will benefit the establishment and enhance the efficiency of (a) practically interoperable IoT systems for care delivery and research, (b) adequate data and knowledge standards of self-empowerment, and (c) sound clinical decision-making foundations.