It is said that 5G will change thousands of industries. Among them, 5G healthcare is an important application field of 5G technology in the healthcare industry.
With the arrival of the official commercialization of 5G and the full integration and application of cutting-edge technologies such as big data, Internet+, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, 5G healthcare is increasingly showing strong influence and vitality, which is important for the advancement of the deepening of healthcare. Institutional reforms, accelerating the construction of a “healthy China” and promoting the development of the medical and health industry have played an important supporting role.
So, how will 5G change the medical industry? Let’s take a look at the application of 5G healthcare in the segmented fields.
1. Telemedicine application scenarios
1. Remote consultation
my country has a vast territory and uneven distribution of medical resources. It is difficult for residents in rural or remote areas to obtain timely and high-quality medical services.
Traditional remote consultation uses wired connection for video communication, which has high construction and maintenance costs and poor mobility.
The high-speed characteristics of the 5G network can support 4K/8K remote HD consultations and high-speed transmission and sharing of medical image data, and allow experts to conduct consultations anytime and anywhere, improve diagnosis accuracy and guidance efficiency, and promote the sinking of high-quality medical resources.
2. Remote ultrasound
Compared with CT, magnetic resonance and other technologies, the ultrasound examination method largely depends on the doctor’s scanning technique. A probe is similar to the doctor’s eyes during an ultrasound examination. Different doctors adjust the probe scanning according to their own technique habits. Orientation, select the scanning section to diagnose the patient, the final examination result will also have a corresponding deviation.
Since grassroots hospitals often lack excellent ultrasound doctors, it is necessary to establish a remote ultrasound system that can achieve high-definition and no delay, give full play to the high-quality diagnosis capabilities of high-quality hospital experts, achieve cross-regional and cross-hospital business guidance, quality control, and guarantee subordinates The standardization and rationality of the method used in ultrasound work in the hospital.
Remote ultrasound is controlled by remote experts to perform ultrasound examinations on patients in primary hospitals. It can be applied to lower-level hospitals in the medical consortium, as well as counterpart assistance in remote areas, to improve primary medical service capabilities.
The millisecond-level delay characteristics of 5G will enable superior doctors to control the robotic arm to carry out remote ultrasound examinations in real time.
Compared with traditional dedicated lines and WiFi, 5G networks can solve the difficulty and high cost of dedicated lines in remote areas such as grassroots hospitals and islands, as well as the insecure WiFi data transmission in hospitals and the high latency of remote control.
3. Remote surgery
Using medical robots and high-definition audio and video interactive systems, remote experts can perform timely remote surgical treatment of patients in primary medical institutions.
The 5G network can simplify the complicated wired and WiFi network environment in the operating room and reduce the difficulty of network access and construction costs.
Using 5G network slicing technology, it is possible to quickly establish exclusive communication channels between upper and lower hospitals, effectively ensuring the stability, real-time and safety of remote surgery, allowing experts to control the surgical process and patient conditions anytime, anywhere, and achieve cross-regional remote accurate surgical control And guidance is of great significance to reduce the cost of patients’ medical treatment and help the sinking of high-quality medical resources.
Not only that, in special environments such as war zones and epidemic areas, the use of 5G networks can quickly build the communication environment required for remote surgery and improve the emergency service capabilities of medical staff.
4. Emergency rescue
Emergency medicine is a multi-specialty comprehensive science dealing with and studying various acute lesions and acute traumas. It is necessary to take emergency rescue measures for accidents and diseases that threaten human life in a short time, and emergency medicine also Research and design on-site rescue, transportation, communication and other aspects. First-aid equipment is an important part of emergency medicine.
At present, the development of emergency medicine in China is still in its infancy and the development of rural and urban areas is extremely unbalanced. Many areas need to be improved. The structure of emergency medical staff and insufficient equipment are still serious. There are no specialist doctors or full-time doctors on site. In the case of the doctor, the patient’s vital signs and critical alarm information can be transmitted to the remote expert through the wireless network, and remote guidance from the expert can be obtained. It is essential to save the patient’s life, and remote monitoring can also enable the hospital to be the first time Grasp the patient’s condition, formulate first aid plans and prepare resources in advance, and realize the seamless connection between pre-hospital first aid and hospital treatment.
Real-time transmission of medical equipment monitoring information, real-time vehicle positioning information, and video images inside and outside the vehicle through the 5G network is convenient for remote consultation and remote guidance. The collection, processing, storage, transmission and sharing of pre-hospital emergency information can fully improve the efficiency of management and treatment. Improve service quality, optimize service processes and service models. Based on big data technology, the value of medical information data can be fully excavated and utilized, and applied, evaluated, and assisted in decision-making, serving for emergency management and decision-making.
The 5G edge medical cloud can provide safe and reliable medical data transmission, realize information resource sharing, system interconnection and interoperability, and provide strong technical support for pre-hospital emergency and smart medical care.
The 5G intelligent emergency information system includes several parts such as the intelligent emergency cloud platform, on-board emergency management system, remote emergency consultation and guidance system, and emergency assistance system.
Smart emergency cloud platform
Mainly include first aid intelligent intelligent dispatching system, integrated first aid platform system, structured pre-hospital first aid electronic medical record system. The main functions implemented are emergency dispatch, background operation and maintenance management, emergency quality control management, etc.
On-board emergency management system
Including vehicle management system, medical equipment information collection and transmission system, AI intelligent image decision-making system, structured pre-hospital emergency electronic medical record system, etc.
Remote emergency consultation and guidance system
Including a guidance system based on high-definition video and AR/MR to realize real-time transmission of high-definition audio and video, hypermedia medical records, emergency maps, and large-screen announcements.
Emergency assistance systems include smart medical backpacks, emergency recorders, in-car mobile workstations, and hospital mobile workstations.
5. Remote teaching
Medical education refers to education and training for medical and health technicians. Users include medical, nursing, and medical technicians.
Continuing medical education is mainly divided into conference lectures, case discussions, technical operation demonstrations, training seminars, papers and results publications, etc. It can be organized offline or remotely online.
Distance medical education and training mainly include three product forms: a teaching platform based on audio and video conferencing systems, a teaching platform based on usage scenarios, and a teaching platform based on VR/AR equipment.
The teaching platform based on the audio and video conference system is mainly used for teaching and training such as case discussion, medical record sharing, etc. The basic functions are audio and video conference system and PPT sharing;
In addition to audio and video equipment, the teaching platform based on usage scenarios also needs to be connected to corresponding medical equipment based on specific scenarios, such as cardiac catheterization laboratory surgery teaching, neurosurgery surgery teaching, B-mode ultrasound teaching, etc.;
The AR/VR-based virtual teaching platform uses AR/VR glasses and other wearable devices as the carrier, combined with 3D digital models for teaching and training. Compared with the traditional methods, the trainees are more immersive, have more interactive content, and are relatively used Cost is lower.
5G Surgery Demonstration refers to teaching and training in the form of live broadcast, recording and broadcasting of hospital surgery-related cases, mainly for medical technicians in general surgery, anesthesiology, cardiac surgery, and neurosurgery related departments in hospitals, aiming to improve surgery related departments Case experience and practical level of medical staff.
The core functions of the 5G surgical teaching system include mobile terminal applications such as surgical image acquisition, surgical broadcast, surgical guidance, and mobile phones.
The 5G medical teaching system is suitable for multiple business scenarios in the operating room, such as real-time observation of the operation in the classroom, observation of the operation in the director’s office, observation of the operation in the out-of-hospital medical consortium hospital, broadcast of the operation in academic conferences, and remote operation of the mobile terminal.
6. Remote monitoring
Remote monitoring is a kind of remote monitoring that uses wireless communication technology to assist medical monitoring, realizes real-time, continuous and long-term monitoring of patient vital signs, and transmits the acquired vital signs data and critical alarm information to medical staff through wireless communication. form.
Relying on 5G’s low latency and precise positioning capabilities, it can support wearable monitoring devices to continuously report patient location information during use, collect, process, and calculate vital signs information, and transmit it to a remote monitoring center, where remote medical staff can According to the patient’s current state in real time, make timely judgment and treatment of the condition.
2. Application scenarios in the hospital
1. Smart diagnosis
With the continuous deepening of the reform of the medical system, the use of modern medical information technology to optimize the medical treatment process so that the majority of patients can seek medical treatment in an orderly and easy manner has become an urgent need for hospitals to improve their service levels.
The hospital deploys 5G intelligent diagnosis guidance robots that use cloud-network-machine integration, and uses 5G edge computing capabilities to provide artificial intelligence guidance services based on natural semantic analysis, which can improve the service efficiency of the hospital, improve the service environment, and reduce the hall guidance The workload of the nurses reduces the conflicts between doctors and patients and improves the efficiency of diagnosis.
2. Mobile healthcare
Mobile healthcare extends the medical care services of doctors and nurses to the bedside of patients.
On the basis of daily ward rounds and nursing, medical staff can realize the mobile collection and high-speed transmission of image data and physical sign data, and mobile high-definition consultations through 5G network, solve the problem of poor WiFi network security, and improve the quality of ward rounds and nursing services. effectiveness.
In addition, in special wards such as radiology wards and infectious wards, medical staff can also control medical assistant robots to move to designated beds to complete remote care services while protecting the safety of medical staff.
3. Smart campus management
Real-time monitoring of patient signs, hospital personnel safety management, and full life cycle management of medical equipment are common demands in the construction of smart hospitals.
Utilize the characteristics of 5G massive connection to build the hospital’s medical Internet of things, organically connect the hospital’s massive medical equipment and non-medical assets, which can realize hospital asset management, hospital emergency dispatch, medical staff management, equipment status management, access security, and patient signs in real time Monitoring, hospital navigation and other services improve hospital management efficiency and patient experience.
4. AI-assisted medical care
With the continuous advancement of computer technology and medical imaging technology, medical imaging has gradually developed from auxiliary examination methods to the most important clinical diagnosis and differential diagnosis method in modern medicine.
5G smart medical solutions rely on PACS image data, build AI-assisted diagnosis and treatment applications through big data + artificial intelligence technology solutions, model and analyze medical imaging data, analyze disease conditions and lesions, and provide doctors with decision-making support and improve Medical efficiency and quality can well solve many problems in my country’s medical imaging field, such as:
The supply is severely unbalanced and the number of imaging doctors is insufficient, especially doctors with rich clinical experience and high quality are in short supply; diagnosis results are basically determined by the visual inspection and experience of imaging doctors, and the rate of misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis is high; Film speed, time-consuming, etc.
