- 5G in Healthcare Solving Care Team Problems at Ellison Institute
Wilkie also touched on the fact that technology is leveraging this type of care in ways that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago.
“Imagine a doctor being able to see layers beneath the skin before the first incision is ever made,” said Wilkie. “The FDA was never able to approve these sorts of practices in surgery because 4G technology simply could not carry that much information. But we are on the cutting edge and moving forward in ways that just a few years ago were unimaginable.”
While most hospitals watch 5G implementation in hospitals unfold from the sidelines, many centers are taking advantage of the new technology such as Barcelona’s San Raffaele hospital and Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center.
Most recently, the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC partnered with wireless network AT&T to open a new “smart” facility to further advance multidisciplinary cancer research ecosystem through 5G, multi access edge computing (MEC), artificial intelligence (AI), and various other technology from AT&T.
In a recent AT&T article, the company identified five ways that 5G will transform healthcare in the future including quickly transmitting large imaging files, expanding telemedicine, improving AR, VR and spatial computing, providing reliable, real-time monitoring, and supporting artificial intelligence.
“By enabling all these technologies through 5G networks, healthcare systems can improve the quality of care and patient experience, reduce the cost of care, and more,” the company concluded.
Telehealth is vital to increase quality of healthcare overall. Leveraging 5G technology with telehealth concurrently will boost care for veterans who may need to receive treatment for various chronic diseases.
Back in June 2019, the VA boosted its efforts to help rural veterans with HIV improve care management by creating a telehealth program.
A study from the Center for Access and Delivery Research and Evaluation at the VA Medical Center in Iowa City, uncovered that vital suppression improved in patients using telemedicine when compared against a control group that relied on in-person care.
Telehealth implementation is a top priority for the VA, which has infamously faced access to care challenges, including long wait times that have resulted in negative patient outcomes. In his speech, Wilkie touted telehealth services veterans can now access, including the identification of potential diabetic foot and the precision oncology program, which leverages telehealth to deliver targeted cancer care to veterans based on their genetic profiles.
5G in healthcare is making these and new programs a reality and giving veterans more reliable access to timely care.
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