6. (Re)meet the cast!

Various players will gradually shape the IoT in healthcare. They are (without a hierarchy of roles, each one having to play its part for the IoT to exist):

• healthcare professionals and organizations;

• patients and their families, associations, society through local authorities and supervisory bodies;

• manufacturers and service providers;

• telecoms and ICT players;

• funders: compulsory health insurance (which determines the reimbursement of objects or services), supplementary insurers (mutual insurers, provident institutions, insurers) who include object-related service offers in their contracts. This inevitable development poses difficult problems in terms of patient confidentiality and freedom of choice....