5G and Healthcare

Technology giant Ericsson predicts that 2020 will be the year when 5G will launch into healthcare.

14:11 17 June 2017

On Wednesday, technology giant Ericsson launched its 5G research report at Kings College London where it predicted that 5G would transform the healthcare industry as early as 2020.

 

5G is the next evolution of mobile wireless standards following 3G and 4G. Hanna Maurer Sibley, head of network products in Western and Central Europe for Ericsson, described it as the future “network society” and a “huge game changer.”

 

The reports, which was based on research from 4,500 smartphone users and 900 industry decision makers in Japan, Germany, South Korea, the UK and the US, was entitled ‘The Critical Role of 5G in Healthcare Transformation’. It predicts that patient data in hospitals will be centralised and that both patients and healthcare providers will rely heavily on wearables and remote treatments.

 

However, the audience at Kings was cynical of the timing of the 5G technology and whether the NHS would even be able to facilitate it. Concerns about how the NHS will handle such immature technology with its existing infrastructure have also been raised before.

 

Meanwhile, Prokar Dasgupta, professor of robotic surgery and urological innovation at Kings and honorary consultant urological surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said that security is his chief priority.

 

“Security in healthcare, as I have said repeatedly, has to be numero uno.”

 

“One, we cannot have any leaks, and two we cannot have hackers holding us to ransom.”