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10 EE|Times EUROPE
TELEMEDICINE
Bumpy Ride for 5G in Health Care
By John Walko
he established, often-paternalistic monplace, not least for rural communities.
global health-care system is facing And not all are related to technology.
a necessary — but not universally Gaining acceptance from patients can be a
T welcome — shakeup, driven by the frustrating hurdle, and from the other side of
arrival of ever more capable communication the equation, the reluctance and skepticism
technologies, especially 5G. of some health-care professionals are also
Advances are already being seen and erecting barriers.
deployed in numerous areas of the sector, “The health-care sector has traditionally
such as remote surgery and patient moni- been slower than others to adopt digital
toring, wearable devices, tracking patients’ ways of working, but Covid-19 has prompted
movements within facilities, and transferring health-care professionals and organizations
larger and larger medical files and images to quickly embrace technologies to help
almost instantaneously. resolve the immediate challenges, and [they
Such developments are opening up are recognizing] the need to fundamentally
opportunities to create and operate a rethink their models around the provision of
much more efficient and modern health-care care using emerging technologies,” said Lucy
system — one that is better-connected and Baker, service technology director at U.K. Lucy Baker, service technology director at U.K.
more intelligent, thus offering prospects national carrier BT, in an interview with EE national carrier BT
for significantly improved outcomes for Times Europe.
patients and more convenient ways of work- Baker noted that during the pandemic, The group was the first in the U.K. to
ing for providers. parts of the U.K.’s National Health Service demonstrate a remote-controlled ultra-
The improvements are already yielding (NHS) saw a decade’s worth of digital sound scan being transmitted over a public
results, with the fourth generation of cellular transformation take place over a matter of 5G network. The work is part of the group’s
and 4G LTE linked with high-quality fiber con- just months. “Connected Ambulance” concept, which
nectivity. But given the potential to link 5G’s BT has been exploring the potential uses allows front-line teams to diagnose and triage
much higher speeds and lower latency with of 5G, focusing on ultrasonography. The patients remotely, supported by clinicians
advances in edge computing, telemedicine company has collaborated with the Medi- in the hospital who can interpret the images
could transform most of the critical compo- cal Devices Testing and Evaluation Centre sent in real time.
nents of health care. (MD-TEC) as well as parts of the NHS — nota- Baker added that last year, the group car-
There are, however, important hurdles to bly, the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS ried out a large-scale study, in collaboration
overcome before these advances become com- Foundation Trust and West Midlands 5G. with iGov UK, that highlighted the increase
(Source: BT)
MARCH 2022 | www.eetimes.eu