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Attention must be paid to the “softer”side of smart city projects, advises ABI Research.

The firm said that healthcare and education make cities more livable. Smart city projects involving healthcare and education complement more tangible – and hence easier to assess – functions such as smart parking, smart kiosks and smart utilities, researchers said.

“Common to both healthcare and education, the provisioning of remote, online services is transforming service industries in cities,” Dominique Bonte, ABI’s Vice President of End Markets, said in a press release. “The centralized ‘brick and mortar’ approach of providing standardized education and healthcare at physical locations and at discrete times is giving way to virtualization characterized by real-time, adaptive, continuous, flexible, and intelligent monitoring and guidance.”

Smart Community Projects

Programs such as FutureSchools and Smart Nation healthcare initiatives in Singapore and e-Services portal for universities and Healthcare City in Dubai are examples of how smart city technology can support healthcare and education and, more broadly, make cities more livable, reduce the gap between rich and poor and buttress local economies.

The report draws one distinction between healthcare and educational use of smart city technology. Smart health is aimed primarily at the aging population that is exiting or already out of the workforce. Smart education, however, deals with a much younger demographic and therefore is an important element of the cities’ economic future.

The fact that technology is changing so quickly is making education and reeducation increasingly important. This responsibility, according to the report, is shifting from schools to the enterprise, which lends itself to smart city-based learning. Cities are partnering with local institutions on smart technology. The Metrolab Network, for instance, coordinates 35 city-university partnerships in the United States. It is involved in 160 projects in which university researchers are paired with city policymakers in 59 universities in 44 cities.

The report says that by 2028 the number of patients monitored remotely will be greater than the number monitored in medical facilities. Healthcare, during this time, will be increasingly integrated into “well-being” environments featuring healthy lifestyles, safety and preventive attitudes. This will be supported by smart city livability efforts.