How the Dawn of 5G Commercialization Ushers in the Era of Smart Healthcare
Fifth-Generation Mobile Communication (5G) technology is dedicated to addressing the future explosive growth in mobile data traffic, massive device connectivity, and the continuous emergence of diverse new services and application scenarios. Meanwhile, it deeply integrates with various industries to meet the diversified needs of terminal interconnectivity in vertical sectors, thereby creating a new world of “Internet of Everything.”
5G networks support 20 billion connected devices and 21.2 billion connected sensors, enabling the transmission of massive volumes of data in gigabytes within seconds. This robust transmission capability will facilitate the implementation of applications such as telemedicine.
VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has compiled multiple industry reports and in-depth studies on “5G + Healthcare” from both domestic and international sources, striving to provide a comprehensive overview of the cutting-edge developments and practical implementations of 5G technology in the medical field.
Since the 1980s, a new generation of revolutionary mobile communication technologies has emerged every decade, continuously accelerating innovation in the information industry and driving the prosperity and development of the economy and society.
Currently, fifth-generation mobile communication technology (5G) is advancing rapidly. With a completely new network architecture, it will deliver peak data rates at least ten times those of 4G, millisecond-level transmission latency, and connectivity for hundreds of billions of devices, ushering in a new era of extensive Internet of Everything and deep human-machine interaction.
5G builds upon 4G by setting higher requirements for mobile communications. It not only delivers comprehensive improvements in speed, latency, and power consumption but also fosters the development of the internet, helping us enter the era of the intelligent internet. In summary, 5G has six fundamental characteristics:
• High Speed—Only with improved network speeds can user experience and perception be significantly enhanced, enabling networks to handle VR and ultra-high-definition services without constraints, thereby facilitating the widespread adoption and use of bandwidth-intensive applications.
• Ubiquitous Network—The term "ubiquitous network" carries two layers of meaning: first, extensive coverage across all areas of our society; second, in-depth coverage, referring to higher-quality, deep-reaching connectivity.
• Low Power Consumption – All IoT products require communication and power. Although communication can be achieved through various means today, power supply relies solely on batteries. If the communication process consumes excessive energy, it will be difficult for IoT products to gain widespread user acceptance.
• Low Latency — The minimum latency requirement for 5G is 1 millisecond, or even lower. Therefore, technologies such as edge computing will be integrated into the 5G network architecture.
• Internet of Everything—In the 5G era, terminals are not defined on a per-person basis, as each individual may own multiple terminals, and each household may also have multiple terminals.
• Reconstructing Security—Security is the foremost requirement for the intelligent internet in the post-5G era. If 5G infrastructure is deployed without rebuilding the security framework, it could result in devastating consequences.
5G wireless technology will enable three major applications in 2019 and 2020. First, 5G will primarily support the realization of true mobile internet connectivity through devices such as smartphones.
Second, 5G will be used to connect devices with “limited mobility.” The primary application forms are 5G modems or hotspots: dedicated wireless access devices that, due to their compact size, offer good portability, can connect to 5G networks, and then link other devices via Wi-Fi technology.
Third, we will deploy 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) equipment and install permanent antennas on buildings or windows to provide broadband services to homes and businesses, replacing wired network connections.
According to Deloitte’s forecasts, fifth-generation (5G) wide-area wireless networks will see widespread adoption in 2019. In 2018, 72 telecom operators conducted 5G trials. By the end of 2019, 25 operators are expected to launch 5G services in select areas (typically urban regions). In 2020, the number of operators offering 5G services is projected to increase by an additional 26, more than doubling the total from 2019.
It is estimated that around 20 smartphone manufacturers will launch 5G-enabled phones in 2019 (with the first batch of 5G-capable devices hitting the market in the second quarter of 2019). Sales of 5G modems (also known as “puck” devices or hotspots) are projected to reach one million units, while the number of installed 5G fixed wireless access devices could also exceed one million.
Compared with today’s 4G technology, the most prominent advantage of the first-generation 5G networks for users is their faster speed: peak data rates can reach gigabits per second, while maintaining stable speeds of hundreds of megabits per second.
The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, points out: “What best embodies the impact of 5G in the healthcare sector is ‘personalized medicine.’ IoT devices can continuously collect patient-specific data, rapidly process, analyze, and return information, and recommend suitable treatment plans to patients, thereby empowering patients with greater autonomy in self-management.”
Personalization of healthcare services also means that when physicians provide care, they can make accurate diagnoses and precisely tailor treatment plans to the individual needs of specific patients. However, personalized medicine entails high costs and poses distinct regulatory requirements.
5G represents a new generation of digital healthcare networks, with significant potential to enhance patient experiences and enable personalized medicine. It helps users maintain their health through three core capabilities: the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), and mission-critical services. The convergence of these three capabilities enables comprehensive, personalized services for users anytime and anywhere.
The application of 5G technology will break through spatial limitations and optimize people’s lives in various scenarios, including healthcare and smart homes. Specific application cases in smart healthcare include:
• Data Interconnectivity for Mobile Medical Devices—Supports the real-time transmission of large volumes of human health data, enabling healthcare institutions to provide continuous physiological monitoring for non-hospitalized wearable device users. Additionally, it facilitates unified data transmission for all hospital equipment, such as medical monitors and portable monitors, via a medical platform.
• Remote Surgical Demonstration – By live-streaming surgical and medical footage, combined with AR technology, it enables grassroots physicians to conduct remote internships on surgical procedures.
• Super Ambulance – Transmits ultra-high-definition video and data from smart medical devices, enabling hospital-based physicians to assess the patient’s condition in advance.
• Advanced Remote Consultation — By combining high-definition video transmission with force-sensing and haptic feedback devices, it provides physicians with a more realistic assessment of the patient’s condition and delivers advanced consultation services to patients.
• Remote telesurgery – Surgeons remotely operate robotic systems to perform surgeries by leveraging real-time data transmitted via 5G networks, integrated with VR and haptic feedback systems.
Under 5G networks, diagnosis and treatment will transcend geographical barriers, health management and preliminary diagnostics will shift to home-based settings, enabling more efficient allocation and matching between doctors and patients, while traditional hospitals transform into health management centers:
• Extending from traditional disease diagnosis and treatment to health management: The low-latency and high-reliability characteristics of 5G better support continuous monitoring and sensory processing devices, enabling medical IoT devices to operate uninterruptedly and robustly in the background to collect real-time patient data. As data emerges as a new form of medical capital, hospitals can leverage this to transition toward health management services, offering various remote solutions such as daily health monitoring to prevent diseases and reduce healthcare expenditures; preliminary diagnostics to decrease outpatient visits; and home-based rehabilitation monitoring to optimize the utilization of medical resources.
• Personalized medical services—such as regular home-based outpatient care, remote consultations with global experts, and multidisciplinary case discussions.
• Mitigate geographical constraints, expand access to medical care, and achieve shared medical resources—real-time remote communication enables interconnectivity among different medical institutions, allowing patients to receive remote diagnosis/consultation, remote surgery/surgical assistance, and postoperative rehabilitation support from authoritative physicians.
• Emergency Care Improvement—The high-frequency transmission characteristics of 5G will enable millisecond-level transmission speeds in the future. Emergency communication systems and imaging diagnostic equipment powered by 5G networks will better ensure that hospitals are fully prepared before patients arrive, thereby facilitating rapid initiation of resuscitation efforts.
• VR applications improve surgical success rates and enhance doctor-patient relationships.
According to IHS forecasts, by 2035, 5G technology will drive global healthcare market sales to $1.1 trillion, accounting for approximately 9% of the global 5G-related economic scale at that time. In terms of 5G applications in healthcare, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is a key focus area for future 5G deployment.
For example, in the United States, Qualcomm has established a subsidiary, Qualcomm Life, dedicated to developing wireless technologies for the healthcare industry. Its ultimate goal is to provide patients with a compliant, medical-grade secure platform that connects smart medical devices in hospitals and at home.
Qualcomm Life has launched a 5G-based medical Internet of Things (IoT) platform called 2net, which connects patients and healthcare providers with next-generation mobile health solutions.
The 2net platform, 2netHub, and 2netMobile software modules deliver smart care by providing wireless connectivity and enhanced interoperability, thereby enabling the reliable sharing and management of data from various medical devices, including healthcare-focused wearables. This allows biometric sensor data to be accurately captured and seamlessly transmitted to the cloud for integration with other systems, applications, or portals, facilitating continuous monitoring anytime, anywhere.
2net enables hospitals, physicians, and patients to seamlessly connect sensors and devices for real-time data acquisition in the home setting, facilitating personalized care. Patients favor 2net for its comfort, convenience, and affordability.
In the healthcare sector, Internet of Things (IoT) technology has been widely adopted. IoT enables hospitals to achieve intelligent management of personnel, assets, and equipment, supporting the digital collection, processing, storage, transmission, and sharing of internal hospital information. This facilitates visualized, digitized, and automated management of people, equipment, and supplies. These IoT applications impose higher demands on connection capacity, reliability, and speed, which will be better met in the 5G era.
In its released “2017 Internet of Things in Healthcare Survey,” Accenture pointed out that the market value of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the healthcare sector would reach $163 billion by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.1% from 2015 to 2020. Meanwhile, the proportion of investment by healthcare institutions in IoT-based healthcare solutions is increasing alongside the overall growth of IT budgets.
Digital applications will drive innovation in the healthcare industry across multiple domains, including disease prevention, diagnosis, and improvement of patient behavior. According to McKinsey’s projections, under an optimistic scenario, 5G-enabled digitalization could boost healthcare industry revenues by 45%.
Recently, Huawei, in collaboration with China Unicom’s Fujian Branch, Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Beijing 301 Hospital, and Suzhou Kangduo Robot Co., Ltd., successfully conducted a 5G remote surgical experiment on animals, marking the world’s first 5G remote surgery.
Huawei conducted this surgery at the China Unicom Southeast Research Institute, with Liu Rong, Director of the Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Tumor Surgery Department at Beijing 301 Hospital, serving as the lead surgeon. He remotely operated a robotic system located 50 kilometers away to perform a hepatic lobule resection on a piglet at Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital of Fujian Medical University. The entire procedure lasted approximately 60 minutes.
The biggest challenge in remote surgery is real-time signal connectivity; even slight delays can cause irreversible harm to patients. However, the remote operation in this procedure benefited from 5G network technology, achieving near-perfect synchronization throughout the surgery. The surgical incision was smooth, and the postoperative vital signs of the experimental animals remained stable. Liu Rong highly praised the 5G network after the surgery, stating, “The control experience and high-definition video transmission based on the 5G network have reached a level consistent with that of dedicated fiber-optic lines.”
The two major U.S. wireless carriers, Verizon and AT&T, are also actively deploying “5G + Healthcare.”
In October 2018, Verizon announced that it had become the first major carrier in the United States to launch commercial 5G services. This move reportedly utilized “5G Home” hardware that did not comply with the official 5G standards. The company stated that it would upgrade to standards-based 5G technology once mature hardware became available.
At Verizon’s 5G Labs pre-commercial node, students and faculty from Columbia University’s Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab explored the use of 5G for remote physical therapy.
Professor Steven Feiner, Director of the Laboratory, stated, “5G may influence where physicians provide treatment and how patients undergo rehabilitation.” Remote physical therapy is merely the tip of the iceberg regarding 5G applications in surgery. Ultimately, the faster the information transmission speed, the greater the opportunity to deliver breakthrough solutions for patients.
Through Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, physical therapists can help patients regain their range of motion after surgery. Medical students at teaching hospitals may observe remote surgeries in near real-time. 5G wireless networks will be key to unlocking new solutions for preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic care.
In January 2019, AT&T announced that it was collaborating with Rush University Medical Center and Rush System for Health to jointly explore the first standards-based 5G network deployed in a healthcare setting in the United States.
The use of 5G technology in healthcare settings is critically important. Ultimately, 5G will deliver faster speeds and lower latency, supporting the extensive array of innovative technologies that Rush is currently deploying across its entire system.
AT&T MEC services will enable Rush to manage its cellular traffic through its local network and wide area network. This will allow Rush to better meet its data networking and application processing needs, enhance various use cases within its systems, and help improve the patient experience.
2019 was hailed as the inaugural year of commercial 5G deployment. By providing faster connectivity and higher bandwidth, the development of 5G wireless networks will enhance telemedicine and remote care. 5G represents a completely new digital healthcare network; its advent will elevate medical service models to new heights and generate significant economic benefits for the entire industry.
References:
1. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/cn/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/deloitte-cn-tmt-5g-industry-application-zh-180927.pdf
2. https://www2.deloitte.com/cn/zh/pages/technology-media-and-telecommunications/articles/tmt-predictions-2019.html
3. http://pg.jrj.com.cn/acc/Res/CN_RES/INDUS/2018/3/20/dc7c1237-52b1-4513-9680-6b1019ffd677.pdf
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5. https://vcbeat.top/ODAyMTlhODEwZjMxYTUyMDc4NTVmODk3NmRlNTI1NTk=