Much has been written on the advent of 5G technology in India and its potential benefits to transform several sectors. The healthcare industry also holds a promising future with the emergence of this revolutionary technology, in terms of better connectivity and an enhanced healthcare ecosystem. From giving a fillip to telemedicine to handling and transferring a massive amount of patient data, 5G has been an overwhelming phenomenon for the transformation of healthcare across the globe.
In developing countries like India, telemedicine evolved like never before, after the Covid-19 pandemic, and has gained significance ever since. This is exactly why 5G will make a big difference, especially when it comes to remote care and near- instantaneous data transfer of medical records. The biggest advantage of 5G has been its ability to provide high-quality video on every connected device. This means, from telemedicine to emergency response care, 5G has the power to transform every critical component of the existing healthcare system.
Why have 5G technologies become critical?
It is not that the concepts of telemedicine or remote care have evolved overnight with the advent of 5G. These things were there even with the current 4G, however, 4G wireless networks are riddled with lags. They have faced problems in key remote surgery or even a simple remote video doctor consultation. Undoubtedly, handling a massive amount of patient data or medical records can be overwhelming for a 3G or 4G network. This is why 5G can make a big difference with its high speed and bandwidth.
This means the entire concept of telemedicine can receive a boost in the arm with 5G, making the transfer of records such as diagnostics test reports, prescriptions, medical imaging, and other medical reports a seamless process. This would also mean an enhanced experience from the perspective of a medical professional as well as the patient.
How 5G will revolutionize the healthcare industry
Remote patient monitoring: Through wearable devices having sensors connected to 5G networks elderly patients or those living in remote areas can benefit immensely. With the help of such wearable devices, 5G technology can thus help in monitoring their vitals in real-time. Large, specialized healthcare facilities can monitor their patient’s health in this way and their conditions can be managed properly and more efficiently.
Facilitating healthcare equality: People living in remote areasoften facehurdles in getting timely and quality healthcare services. They get tied down by several factors like costly travel, long waiting times, and/or delayed treatment. 5G networks can ensure that this situation changes drastically. In this way, technology can help in ensuring healthcare equality by reducing the patient burden in remote healthcare and ensuring higher output of medical professionals.
High-definition (HD) virtual consultations: Nowadays,two-wayHD video is being used to conduct initial screening assessments and routine check-ups between a patient and primary/secondary care professional. These appointments would reduce the burden on patients and decrease the cost of each physical appointment. Therefore, 5G will enable two-way HD consultations seamlessly while providing the benefit of higher bandwidth, low latency, and increased reliability.
Video-enabled medical adherence: In the case of elderly and mentallyillpatients, the challenge is that they forget when they have taken their prescription medication. 5G can help tackle this problem through video-enabled medication adherence.
Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality use in healthcare: Visually impaired or visually challenged can often be hindered in doing daily life tasks such as crossing a road or entering a building etc. In such cases, using a 5G-enabled AR/VR headset or set of video streaming glasses can help visually impaired individuals to be connected in real-time to a live advisor and seek guidance in their daily life.
Some 5G healthcare use cases
Connected ambulance will revolutionize emergency care: Technology is revolutionizing emergency care by enabling medical staff to treat patients before they reach the hospital. 5-G connected ambulances will revolutionize emergency care as smart ambulance crews can now share a patient’s vitals and symptoms in real-time with the hospital using 5G and advanced AR/VR support.
Data and Video analytics: Data and video analytics can be used in the hallways in hospitals, care homes, psychiatric centers, etc. to identify patients who are behaving out of the ordinary. They might have had an incident such as falling or are becoming a danger to themselves and others. In this way, data and video analytics can be used for behavioral recognition, using 5G technology.
Assisted living: 5G can empower senior citizens and handicapped people to live their best lives as the technology can be personalized.
Data Collection for drug usage: Nowadays, many countries are designing 5G edge computing-assisted architecture for the medical community.
Challenges of healthcare industry
Lack of medical professionals: The lack of efficient and qualified medical professionals including nurses, doctors, and paramedical staff has plagued the Indian healthcare industry for long. Training and hiring more medical professionals is the need of the hour, especially after the pandemic. Emerging 5G technologies will enable remote patient monitoring to happen at a scale when compared to other connectivity solutions.
Lack of infrastructure: According to a report, over 75% of the healthcare infrastructure is concentrated in metro cities, where only 27% of the total population resides. The rest 73% of the Indian population lack even basic medical facilities. The 5G ecosystem will pave the way for filling this gap through low-latency networks and faster connectivity.
Lack of sufficient budget: Although experts have welcomed the increased allocation for the health sector, an insufficient healthcare budget has been a cause of concern for the country, where a majority of the population is dependent on government health subsidies. 5G technologies can help with budget constraints as they will make it possible for doctors or specialists to guide medical treatments and procedures through remote or video conferencing over high-quality networks.
Why are we facing these challenges?
Immense increase in population: This is one of the biggest factors that has led to a skewed doctor-patient ratio in the country.
Lack of resources: The IT budget should be increased so that incorporating 5G technologies becomes easier. The knowledge and doubts around reliability and security, variations in the system, and technical maturity of 5G technologies also need to be addressed through adequate resources.
Unable to adopt advanced technologies in the medical sector: While the education and IT sector have adopted 5G technologies to a large extent, the same needs to go for the medical sector for better connectivity and outreach.
The road ahead
A new healthcare ecosystem is possible with the combination of 5G with emerging technologies such as AI, ML, and IoT. 5G connectivity can prove to be a new dawn for healthcare. In a nutshell, the fifth generation of mobile networks can play a pivotal role in acting as a catalyst as well as addressing the barriers in current connectivity solutions.