5G allows remote diagnosis of patients, speeds up treatment

LANGKAWI: The fifthgeneration (5G) technology in medicine will allow remote diagnosis of critical patients and speeds up treatment, thus increasing their chances of survival.

Sultanah Maliha Hospital Emergency and Trauma Department head Dr Roshidah Rosman said via this technology, real-time transfer of patient data to the hospital was done from where the patient was being diagnosed.

“Paramedics will diagnose the patient faster using an electrocardiogram (ECG) and ultrasound scan in an ambulance and the scan image will be displayed on a screen that can be viewed on a tablet or hospital computer screen.

“Via the 5G technology, the process of obtaining the diagnosis using ECG will be faster and save up to one minute instead of two to three minutes (via 4G or 3G technology),” she told Bernama here yesterday.

Dr Roshidah said paramedics in the ambulance could also communicate directly with a specialist at the hospital and when the patient arrives, followup treatment could be continued as the first aid diagnosis has already been done while the patient was on the way to the hospital.

Sultanah Maliha Hospital is one of the locations undergoing a 5G technology demonstration project in Langkawi in collaboration with the Digi telecommunications company, since December.

Dr Roshidah added that the use of the technology also enabled the hospital’s medical team to directly monitor the patient’s condition on the way to the hospital through highdefinition visual and audio (HD) displays from cameras mounted in the ambulance.