Is 5G the “Big Leap” for Health Tech?

The world is moving towards connectivity and a smart world — where every single thing is in harmony with the other. 5G has always been assumed to be the key to this. This technology has taken the world by storm and everyone is scurrying looking for the 5G killer app. While the debate of 5G killer apps is still a hot topic of discussion, we cannot overlook how this has opened new ventures for the healthtech and healthcare sectors all over the globe. The performance enhancements of 5G Networks will serve as the backbone of developing technologies that will change the healthcare world and deliver gains in three important areas: annual cost savings, patient access to quality treatment, and patient experience. The possibilities are now just — endless!

Source: Blackman, J. (2022, March)

5G has made possible a ton of things, all of which are indebted to its ultra-fast speeds and a very low latency (less than 30 milliseconds has now been achieved). These two properties of 5G will allow superfast connections with very little lag. Agility, efficiency, and speed are required for transferring and processing these massive new data quantities. If 5G is implemented correctly, it will enable a wide range of medical advancements, including the expanded use of artificial intelligence for personalized medicine, the expansion of telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and the widespread adoption of spatial computing technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality. Health care and technology go hand in hand, and with this new mobile network, everyone is working hard to make health tech utilize 5G to its maximum.

Telemedicine

It’s natural for people to lean toward human touch when it comes to personal dealings. However, the post-Covid-19 era has seen a boom in the telemedicine department. This is largely because lockdown and quarantine made people access healthcare remotely. Not only does telemedicine save time and resources, with 5G, a high-quality interaction between the doctor and patient will be possible in almost real time. Doctors will also be able to access medical records of the respective patients no matter the distance between the two. Newer healthcare technology, such as mixed and virtual reality headsets, are adding to the data volume explosion. Large volumes of data are transmitted across the network during the rendering of the images these devices produce. Data can be delivered at quicker speeds because of the introduction of 5G and multi-access edge and cloud computing, which improves viewing and collaboration.

According to a survey made by Updox (a healthcare communication platform), the patients expressed their opinion on why they would continue using telemedicine even after the pandemic becomes a memory. One reason is because they do not need to worry about being exposed to infections; also, it is easier and faster to make an appointment, and the follow ups and communication are very streamlined, apart from the fact that people are less stressed since they do not need to deal with traffic, parking, and crowded waiting rooms. Why should anyone miss out on the most efficient healthcare?

Robotics in healthcare?

Well, this has been around for a while, where the surgeon operates on a patient by controlling a robot from a separate room. In contrast, 5G is supposed to take this function to the next level, allowing specialist doctors present in another country to be able to perform complex surgeries successfully on patients. This all could be made possible because of the very low latency of 5G. Mobile ICU rooms equipped with 5G tech in the back of an ambulance can help perform life saving maneuvers on patients facing imminent doom. Use of robots as a health assistant for senior citizens is also one of the exceptional innovations that left us in awe.

A 5G-centric Taiwan

5G is already a critical component of industrial development. Taiwan is leading the world in the deployment of 5G and its applications. Through their futuristic approach, Taiwan will be the first to enter an age of Smartworld, where everything will be connected in real time, from your wrist bands to your smart TV, from healthcare to entertainment. Looking ahead, the Taiwanese government will work with the private sector to pursue business opportunities brought on by the 5G era, as well as to help companies propose 5G solutions and enter the international market. An impressive fact is that before the end of last year, Taiwan already reached 85% coverage of the 5G network in metropolitan cities.

Here is an example of a success story from a Taiwanese startup: iXensor. In Kenya, more than 70% of individuals seeking medical treatment at small clinics require testing, which is frequently forwarded to bigger centralized clinical institutions. So, Ilara Health (Kenya’s local health tech startup) has partnered with iXensor to deliver point-of-care diagnostics to small clinics in Kenyan rural areas. Ilara Health will connect the data from PixoTest results to its communication platform, which will be able to send out SMS and WhatsApp notifications. With these measures, healthcare professionals may communicate and remind patients about their continuing treatment in an easy and integrated manner. In less than a year, Ilara Health has implemented PixoTest in 60 primary care settings. This breakthrough has been praised not just by physicians but also by patients.

The Barrier

All of these and much more applications of 5G in health tech have great potential but, there are still many roadblocks to overcome. The one that is really problematic is that doctors and health care workers have been trained all their lives to live interaction with patients. Transferring all of their skills to a non-human environment, where their first contact are the microphones or arms of a machine poses a big issue. Healthtech has put everything into jeopardy as traditional healthcare always preferred risk aversion and followed strict protocols. Yet, with virtual healthcare, rigorous legislations and protocols need to be developed in order to prevent irreparable damage to the patients.

In a nutshell…

Healthcare systems can improve the patient experience and quality of care, and reduce its costs by enabling all of these technologies through 5G networks. It is unfair to try and put every possible impact of 5G on health tech in one writing. In a world where so many brilliant minds have realized the dreams of our ancestors, even more brilliant people will come forward to combat the hurdles posed to implementation of 5G in the health sector. 5G and the excitement surrounding it will undoubtedly help drive innovation, adoption, and deployment of new technology and solutions.