It seems everywhere you look these days you see ads for 5G. It’s the “new thing” when it comes to telecommunications. It reminds me when “the cloud” was first introduced – not many people knew what it really was and yet leading vendors like Microsoft and IBM were pushing it. Cloud was this amorphous “thing” that could magically solve business problems. The same is happening with 5G right now. It’s tough to know what is real and what is hype. This is especially true about 5G + healthcare. How will the technology help? Where can it be used effectively?
These were the questions in my head when I sat down to read an e-Book from Corning titled 4 Reasons Why 5G and Healthcare Make Sense. I was somewhat familiar with 5G, but I didn’t know some of the details and what it meant for healthcare. The biggest surprise for me was that the 5G provided by the major telecommunications companies won’t likely be available at most healthcare facilities. Unlike 3G and 4G signals, which can penetrate the walls of hospitals and medical buildings, 5G signals from outside antennas are unlikely to be strong enough to be used by people inside. That means healthcare organizations will need to invest in the necessary infrastructure to make 5G available inside their buildings.
What does this look like? Download the e-Book for the details. For me, the core idea is that healthcare organizations need to seriously consider investing in a wireless-first 5G network with a fiber backbone. I see this very similar to when healthcare started to invest in WiFi. Forward thinking organizations started deploying WiFi early so they were ready for the need for higher speeds, new devices, and quicker response times. Not considering 5G for your healthcare organization is similar to ignoring WiFi. You might be able to do that for a short time, but it will eventually catch up with you.
When you think of all the technology innovations that are happening in healthcare, you can see why having 5G is going to be important across 3 important areas: Speed, Capacity, and Latency.
Just think about all of the applications that are hitting healthcare today that will benefit from (and some even require) the increased speed, larger capacity, and lower latency. Here’s just a few of the bandwidth hungry applications I can think of: interior wayfinding, centralized inpatient monitoring, telehealth, asset management, medical images, RPM (remote patient monitoring), robotic surgeries, new AR and VR applications, IoT devices, and many more. Good luck trying to do this without overwhelming most existing Wifi infrastructure.
Plus, 5G can provide a number of really important benefits. Here’s a look at 4 benefits the e-Book highlights:
- Improve Patient Experience
- Keep Staff Connected
- Enable New Workflows
- Support the Next Generation of Connected Medical Devices
Download the full e-Book to learn more about 5G’s relationship with each. Plus, the e-Book provides 6 steps for how a healthcare IT leader can get started with their evaluation of 5G in their organization. Needless to say, 5G isn’t something you can just flip the switch on tomorrow. It takes planning and leadership to make sure your organization is prepared for the future connectivity needs of your patients and clinicians.
Plus, rolling out 5G in your healthcare organization means that you’ll avoid all the confusion and frustration staff will have if they bring their new 5G phone to work and it doesn’t have 5G connectivity at your location. Healthcare staff are burnt out enough already. You don’t want lack of quality connectivity to add to that frustration.
Corning is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.
