HEALTH
THE FUTURE 100 197
Telemedicine in China and other Asian markets has gone from basic video
consultation to providing comprehensive medical services akin to physical ones. While the previous 4G network could lead to latency and unstable
connection, restricting the locations where patients could use telemedicine, the
application of 5G has improved the quality of video consultation, remote patient monitoring, and, ultimately, even remote and robotic surgery assistance.
As early as January 2020, China’s ZTE and China Telecom providers deployed
5G healthcare
As China rolls out its 5G infrastructure faster than the rest of the world, healthcare is one of the first sectors to benefit.
China’s first 5G remote diagnosis of COVID-19. The technology connected
doctors at West China Hospital, part of Sichuan University, as the central node
to remotely diagnose and treat COVID-19 patients at two dozen other hospitals, Shenzhen-based ZTE said.
In Guangzhou, a city located in a region dubbed China’s Greater Bay Area
because of its similarity to Silicon Valley, the Guangdong Second Provincial
General Hospital is using 5G to collect, transmit and monitor patient data. Chen Xiaofang, a nurse at the hospital, appeared in an Associated Press (AP) video
report in November 2021 demonstrating how she uses a smartwatch to monitor
procedures such as intravenous infusions, saying “we are now able to save a lot of time.” According to the AP report, some 10,000 devices and sensors at the
hospital are 5G-connected and collect health data such as electrocardiograms in real time, for hospital staff to monitor.
