The advent of 5G technology in the healthcare is moving the industry toward more affordable and convenient options for patients.
Modern challenges that exist for healthcare organizations in the digital age include managing, storing, and transmitting patient data without compromising privacy. Additionally, these facilities must prepare for dealing with increasing amounts of data, making the tasks of transmitting and protecting it more and more difficult.
Thankfully, the emergence of 5G technology can help solve these issues (along with others) and essentially make the overall patient experience better. Here’s how.
Importance of 5G Technology
One of the most significant ways 5G will improve the patient experience is through greater bandwidth and lower latency that leads to faster response times. That means doctors will be able to diagnose health conditions faster.
Additionally, wearable devices worn by patients at home can help medical professionals track more data on their well-being than ever before.
At the core of this revolution will be cloud computing. Many healthcare organizations already have a proprietary secure private cloud to meet HIPAA requirements. The next step will be to add services to the cloud that improve communication between the hospital and patient through digital solutions. Connecting through the cloud allows medical collaborators to securely access and analyze patient records.
Network slicing also gives healthcare organizations the opportunity to easily manage their own private mobile networks.
Improving Healthcare with Smart Solutions
The expansion of smart technology in healthcare will include new smart devices that monitor human biological functions that will help redefine norms in the industry.
Another innovative component of this new paradigm will be artificial intelligence (AI). Machine learning will take enormous amounts of data and turn it into valuable analysis on patients for doctors.
Hospitals will have more accurate and timely data to work with in identifying individual health issues. Wearable technology worn by patients will include IoT sensors that collect data and send it to the hospital in real-time.
The entire healthcare ecosystem can be improved with smart technology. This ecosystem includes ambulances, which can communicate with the hospital and the patient through wireless connectivity. The wider bandwidth of 5G will allow healthcare organizations to expand the number of connections it can facilitate at one time. Mobile medical professionals will be more confident about their services due to the improved reliability of wireless communication.
Rural and other remote residents will have greater real-time access to healthcare solutions the more that telehealth is adopted. The result will be less hospital visits, yet more personalized healthcare. The market for telehealth is expected to grow from $26.4 billion in 2020 to $70.19 billion by 2026. So, it's vital for hospital and clinic stakeholders to begin rethinking their current infrastructure now and consider transforming in order to the telehealth model.
Efficiency of IoT Monitoring
Smart technology combined with 5G will help make healthcare noticeably much better for all patients. IoT monitoring will allow doctors to remotely monitor patients’ conditions and well-being. And hospitals would be alerted when such a patient needs emergency care.
Smart devices will be able to monitor blood pressure, food intake, and whether or not a patient has taken medicine. Various vital signs can also be tracked, giving doctors access to much more patient information than ever before. This more in-depth body of knowledge will contribute to a better understanding of a patient's condition and what they need for medication. Essentially, it can help reduce the guesswork that can prolong the right treatment for each patient.
Conclusion
The coming 5G revolution will expand patient options for convenience. The converging technologies of 5G and IoT devices will exponentially increase the amount of patient data available for medical analysis, while making it more secure and easier to manage. Healthcare organizations should prepare for this game-changing transformation.