5G technology, which is key to having a secure, highly reliable network, can be a game-changer for healthcare organizations.
That's because many healthcare organizations are aiming to achieve several goals at once: power mission-critical applications, remotely monitor and connect with patients, elevate clinician experience and improve health outcomes.
This was a major theme during a panel discussion at Becker's 14th Annual Meeting, featuring:
- Moe Beydoun, director, business product sales, T-Mobile
- Karl Connolly, chief technology officer + chief marketing officer, NetMaven
- Michael Feld, CEO, Pixel Health
Four key takeaways were:
- 5G can support mission-critical applications and perform better than Wi-Fi. Many organizations use Wi-Fi as their primary mode of connectivity to underpin various systems and processes. However, Wi-Fi is not ideal for situations where mobility, cybersecurity, AI integrations and spatial computing are important or for use cases that require low latency, high throughout, large bandwidth and/or automatic data encryption.
A computer vision application to remotely monitor patients using a hub-and-spoke telehealth model (i.e., one nurse monitoring many patients) is a good example. "Wi-Fi is great, but it wasn't born for mission-critical applications that are business-centric," Mr. Beydoun said.
- 5G can enable healthcare organizations to improve their clinical experience and patient outcomes. Beyond mission-critical applications, 5G networks are also essential for enabling the softer, more human-facing aspects of care.
"We can show you how a simpler, flatter way to do this is going to deliver on the things that are most important to you by making your clinicians happy, giving them the tools and resources to do their jobs effectively," Mr. Beydoun said. "That is going to yield better patient outcomes and experiences."
- 5G networks can be customized to meet specific requirements and provide dedicated performance. Depending on the clinical directions a healthcare institution may be trying to pivot toward (e.g., home healthcare), a 5G network can be configured to maximize performance in that context, while considering existing clinical communication platforms, workflows, remote patient monitoring plans and other elements.
"An enterprise can define its own network requirements in terms of bandwidth, quality of service, security features, latency," Mr. Connolly said. "That's future state." He referred to a technology concept known as network slicing — or carving out a virtual network within a macro network — that T-Mobile can do for customers based on their specific requirements.
- Implementing a 5G network requires careful planning and collaboration with the right partners. Healthcare organizations that wish to eliminate technical debt, replace legacy systems and position themselves for the future should consider investing in upgrading their network.
“This is not a small undertaking however it is necessary for CIOs to future proof their organizations. When planned out and implemented properly, this will help address current capacity limits and scales to handle future demands,” Mr. Feld concluded.