Programmable Hardware Platforms for IoT-Driven Healthcare: Microprocessors, Microcontrollers, and FPGAs

Abstract

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has completely boosted the world of modern healthcare.Indeed, it has offer new opportunity for continuous monitoring and taken into account early clinical decision based on concrete evidence.These are in essence enabled by programmable hardware platforms: microprocessors, microcontrollers, and FPGAs, each with its own advantages in performance, energy efficiency, and deterministic behavior.The present chapter compares and contrasts these programmable hardware platforms, applied to various healthcare scenarios that range from medical imaging, wearable and implantable devices, and AI-assisted diagnostics to safety-critical control systems.Microprocessors provide high computational throughput needed by data-intensive imaging and machine learning applications.Microcontrollers make long-term, energy-efficient operation possible on small-sized, patientcentric devices.FPGAs allow the very low latency and simultaneous processing of many biomedical channels, such as ultrasound beamforming and brain-computer interfaces.Thus, this chapter presents the guiding principles on how to choose between these platforms, points out the merits of hybrid architectures, and emphasizes the proper matching between hardware resources and clinical or operational needs.All these together provide a roadmap for designing efficient, reliable, and scalable IoT-enabled healthcare systems.