Infosys, RTI, PTC & MGH Launch IIC’s First Smart Healthcare Testbed

Today, Infosys, RTI, PTC, and Massachusetts General Hospital’s MD PnP Lab unveiled the Industrial Internet Consortium’s (IIC) inaugural smart‑healthcare testbed.

Healthcare is in a critical transition. Fragmented systems hinder progress and keep costs high, while preventable errors still claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year in the United States. With over 80% of older adults managing one or more chronic conditions, the need for reliable, integrated care solutions has never been more urgent.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) offers a promising path forward. By creating intelligent, distributed networks of devices that monitor patient status in real time, IIoT can enhance clinical decision‑making, reduce errors, and enable remote care for both hospitals and home‑bound patients.

The Connected Care Testbed demonstrates the IIC’s reference architecture in practice, building an open IIoT framework that integrates clinical and remote medical devices. It merges patient‑monitoring data with robust data‑management and analytics, and relies on the OpenICE medical‑device framework to guarantee secure interoperability. RTI Connext DDS—already deployed by the MD PnP Lab—serves as the testbed’s data‑distribution middleware.

Use case: A doctor receives a text alert about one of her patients, then logs into the Connected Care system. On the dashboard, the system flags a patient who may need follow‑up. Clicking the name opens the patient’s health history, revealing an alarm that the individual has been taking medication incorrectly—data captured by a home sensor. The doctor reviews the medication‑usage details, identifies the issue, and forwards the alert to her staff with a note to discuss proper use with the patient.

Infosys, as the testbed lead, will handle system development and integration. The first phase will involve a family that has agreed to participate in home monitoring. Devices such as a Fitbit Activity Monitor, a smart scale, a Withings blood‑pressure monitor, a GreatCall fall‑detection system, and an Ivy Vital‑Guard 450C patient monitor will be deployed. The goal is to secure a hospital or clinic partner and use the MD PnP Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital for initial clinical data collection. The MD PnP Lab already employs RTI Connext DDS within its OpenICE implementation, and RTI and the lab are continuing to evolve the OpenICE framework.

Security is a cornerstone of the collaboration. Under HIPAA and to protect patient safety, RTI and the MD PnP Lab are working together to secure data in the OpenICE environment. In a Phase‑1 SBIR project for the Defense Health Program, RTI modeled security requirements for key care settings, identified risks, and demonstrated how an ICE Controller—compliant with the latest DDS security specification—can mitigate those risks. A proof‑of‑concept prototype, showcased at the RSA Conference, will inform the Connected Care testbed’s security strategy.

Learn more on the IIC site, or watch the video below to hear directly from Infosys, the MD PnP Lab, and RTI about the Connected Care testbed.