Recently, the US Department of Justice sued Huawei, its vice chairman and chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, and others. China once again urged the US to immediately revoke the arrest warrant for Ms. Meng Wanzhou. The source of an arrest that affects the hearts of thousands of people is 5G technology.
How important is 5G? As a technology that supports next-generation digital applications, 5G can provide power for future smart cities and digital economy. In addressing many technical, political and policy challenges, countries that have gained first-mover advantage and successfully adopted 5G networks are likely to gain huge economic advantages over other countries.
On January 29, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology spokesperson Wen Ku said that despite the United States’ pressure on Chinese high-tech companies headed by Huawei, China will continue to vigorously develop 5G technology based on the latest telecommunications standards. This is enough to show that in the Sino-US 5G battle, companies that are the first to realize commercial applications are likely to seize market opportunities.
In the medical industry, 5G also has the ability to lead the revolution. In this regard, China and the United States have successively started exploring medical applications based on 5G. In this cold confrontation of technology, the Chinese seem to have been ahead…
U.S. side: still thinking, not enough scenarios
The first physical therapy trial
In October 2018, in the Verizon 5G Lab, students and teachers from the Computer Graphics and User Interface Lab of Columbia University are trying to perform remote physical therapy based on 5G. To
“5G may change the treatment venues of therapists and the way patients receive rehabilitation,” said Professor Steven Feiner, director of the laboratory. “We have been able to experiment with 5G connections to prove that this is a feasible method.”
According to him, remote physical therapy may be just the tip of the iceberg in the application of 5G in surgery. With the acceleration of information transmission, medical institutions will be able to provide patients with breakthrough solutions and reasonable treatment plans.
The experts of Verizon 5G Lab also had some imagination about the medical application of 5G. They believe that with the continuous improvement of network connection, the next breakthrough may not come from research labs, but from the frontline of patient care: hospitals. To
Through 5G wireless activation of the robots in the hospital (logistics, medical guidance, etc.), the robots in the hospital can communicate with each other and coordinate the schedule, so that busy nursing staff can focus on the patient.
The first 5G-based medical system
In January 2019, Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center and the Rush System for Health hospital system announced a collaboration with AT&T to jointly explore the first use of standards-based 5G networks in medical environments in the United States. It is reported that 5G can bring faster speed, lower latency, and supports a large number of innovative technologies currently deployed by Rush in the entire system.
Rush is also implementing AT&T’s multi-access edge computing, which is a cloud-based service. The AT&T MEC service will enable Rush to manage its cellular traffic through its local network and wide area network. This will enable Rush to better meet its data network communication and application processing needs, enhance various use cases in its system, and help improve the patient experience. To
5G is not just an upgrade of 3 or 4G, it includes a variety of communication technologies, including cellular, Wi-Fi and intelligent edge services. It can greatly increase the transmission speed and help devices such as distributed computing or the Internet of Things in healthcare to realize their full potential.
Dr. Shafiq Rab, senior vice president and chief information officer of Rush, said: “We firmly believe that 5G is a game-changing technology. When fully implemented, it will help us better support hospital operations and provide the highest quality patient and hospital staff experience. .”
According to Rab’s vision, doctors can conduct remote consultations or download large-scale laboratory files within a few seconds. This future-oriented healthcare system, with its high-speed and low-latency IT network, can facilitate the rapid exchange of data, allowing clinicians to complete more detailed tasks from a greater distance. To
“This technology will increase access to care, even at long distances, and help reduce costs and increase efficiency. We are applying fast and reliable networks to provide support.” Rab said.
“Ultimately, 5G’s fast and ultra-low latency will change all businesses.” AT&T Business Chief Marketing Officer Mo Katibeh said. “Imagine that the hospital’s wards are arranged intelligently, patients get care through artificial intelligence, and augmented reality is used to train medical students. This sounds like the future, but it’s actually not that far away.”
Comment: At this stage, the US’s 5G medical exploration is basically still in the stage of envisagement, and there are no substantial cases. It is expected that in the middle of 2019, the US will have more specific scenario-based applications.
China: Diverse scenes, take the lead in actual combat
The first hospital to try 5G telemedicine
In October 2018, at the 2018 Digital Economy Summit and 5G Major Technology Exhibition and Exchange Conference, Henan Mobile made a brilliant debut with the theme of “Seeing 5G at your fingertips” and demonstrated its telemedicine achievements in the mobile 5G environment.
It is reported that the 5G network construction carried out by Henan Mobile and the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University is currently in progress. A total of 26 5G base stations are planned for the east, west and surrounding roads of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, and 2 have been completed in the eastern district of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. Station, Zhengda First Affiliated Hospital (Western District) Internet Medical System and Application National Engineering Laboratory has completed the end-to-end business test and application in the National Engineering Laboratory of Zhengda First Affiliated Hospital. To
In the mobile 5G medical application demonstration area, staff from the Telemedicine Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University demonstrated to the guests the cutting-edge telemedicine technologies such as remote consultation, remote B-ultrasound, and mobile ward round robots. To
Professor Zhao Jie, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zheng University and director of the National Engineering Laboratory of Internet Medical Systems and Applications, said that in the future, mobile 5G technology will be adopted, as long as there is a mobile 5G signal, even if you are in a remote rural area, you can achieve it. Households can enjoy the diagnosis and treatment services of experts from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zheng University.
Remote consultation
The patient gets into the ambulance, and the connection speed with the original 4G signal is slow. If the mobile 5G technology is adopted, the patient’s examination information and scene scenes can be directly and quickly transmitted to the hospital on the ambulance, so that the experts can complete the patient’s medical record Reading, you can open the checklist in the car, and you can do the related examinations directly when you arrive at the hospital, which can greatly shorten the patient’s pre-hospital rescue time. Simply put, the patient is in the ambulance equivalent to the emergency center.
Remote ultrasound
With the help of 5G technology, this small wireless B-ultrasound probe is an operating handle, which can move up and down, left and right, and rotate, which can flexibly control the remote medical robot arm. The patient is lying on a hospital bed in his hometown. Experts and doctors from thousands of miles away can see the patient’s physical condition at a glance. As a visualized precision medical tool and a good tool for quick emergency check and preliminary screening, remote B-ultrasound and remote medical treatment are conducive to improving medical staff The work efficiency is improved, the diagnosis and treatment level is improved, and the diagnosis and treatment errors and the resulting doctor-patient disputes are minimized.
In addition to remote ultrasound, wireless infusion is also another black technology in the 5G medical era.
Intravenous infusion is one of the most common clinical treatment methods. During the infusion process, patients often need to stare at the infusion bottle. Once the needle runs out or the infusion is about to end, the nurse must be called at any time. In the 5G medical era, all this will become simple.
According to Chen Baozhan, a staff member of the Telemedicine Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, wireless infusion can be monitored by the wireless alarm through the sensor to obtain the patient’s infusion progress. When the infusion is about to end, it can automatically call the nurse and the patient no longer has to worry about keeping an eye on it. The infusion bottle does not need to be called manually.
In addition, the system can also perform real-time monitoring of the infusion progress, speed, and infusion situation, making the infusion speed and other processes more standardized. What is the infusion situation of a ward, the nurse can see at a glance on a screen.
The first 5G remote surgery
On January 19, the Suzhou Collaborative Innovation Institute of Medical Robotics reported a news that a Chinese surgeon used 5G technology to perform the world’s first remote surgery. The doctor used a 5G network in Fujian Province to operate a robotic arm in a remote area 30 miles (about 48 kilometers) away for surgery.
Recently, Suzhou Kangduo Robot Co., Ltd., a company incubated by the hospital, successfully implemented the world’s first 5G remote surgical animal surgery experiment in Fuzhou with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., and Fujian Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital. This is a 5G remote Surgery laid the foundation.
During the operation, at the operating end of the surgical robot in the 5G laboratory of Fujian Unicom, Liu Rong, the director of the Second Hepatobiliary Surgery Department of the PLA General Hospital, wore 3D glasses and remotely controlled the domestic laparoscopic surgical robot independently developed by Kangdo. The experimental animals in the hospital were performed liver lobectomy and kept in touch with the operating room through the video terminal.
The entire resection process took less than 10 minutes, and the wound was neat and there was almost no blood stains. The operation status is displayed on both ends of the screen in real time, with extremely low operation delay. After the operation, the vital signs of the experimental animal were stable.
Professor Du Zhijiang, chief scientist of Kangduo surgical robotics technology and deputy director of the Robotics Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology, said that the success of this remote surgery experiment will not only greatly promote the application and research of remote robotic surgery, but also have a greater significance in the future. Surgical robots equipped with 5G technology can extend the advantages of robotic surgery to greater distances, perform accurate and timely surgical operations for patients in remote areas, and promote a fairer and more reasonable allocation of medical resources in my country.
In the next step, the hospital will further deepen cooperation with all parties to use 5G technology to promote the construction of regional medical consortium application scenarios based on various medical robots and digital medical equipment, and build medical robots, telemedicine and mobile medical pilots.
Comment: Compared with the United States, China’s 5G medical applications have already had clear cases, and successful trials have been carried out in the revolutionary field of surgical robots. It can be said that China has already led the US by half a step.
Seize the medical opportunity of 5G
In 2001, a 68-year-old woman came to a French hospital called Strasbourg to perform cholecystectomy. The surgeon who performed the operation on her is sitting on a console in New York City, operating a three-arm robot in France. Thanks to the use of transoceanic fiber optics, the attending surgeon can observe women’s movements on the screen in real time. The operation took 54 minutes, and the woman was discharged from hospital two days later. To
Hospital network technology is playing an increasingly important role in medical care. However, due to the high demand for network bandwidth, there have not been many breakthroughs in telemedicine for more than a decade. Until the emergence of 5G…
As some experts have said, telemedicine is one of the most exciting fields in the world, but to achieve real development, network technology must break through. This is why 5G has become a game-changing technology. Because it increases connection speed and reduces latency, this will help medical innovators do what they do best: improve medicine.
2019 is undoubtedly the year of trial commercial use of the fifth-generation mobile communication technology (5G). The medical industry will benefit from the extraordinary capabilities of 5G ubiquitous coverage, Gbps-level speed, and 5ms-30ms-level low latency. In the near future, everyone will be able to enjoy timely and convenient smart medical services. As the 5G dispute between China and the United States intensifies, it may be difficult for medical care to become a pure land.