5G will transform healthcare delivery in countries like India: Oracle

As India rolls out 5G in select cities, the role of the technology in delivery optimum healthcare in remote areas cannot be denied and according to Cloud major Oracle, countries like India can benefit the most basically on two fronts: super-fast and real-time delivery of telemedicine and ambulance care especially in remote areas.

According to Mike Sicilia, the Executive Vice President at Oracle, nothing is more important than saving people's lives and creating better outcomes for patients and 5G is capable of helping countries like India achieve that.

"I think that 5G has the opportunity to open up the telemedicine space in a huge way. The fact is that 5G-capable devices that are connected to the cloud goes beyond just doctor-patient video chats as we saw during the pandemic. 5G can help a healthcare provider access a patient's vital signs and diagnose the ailment faster and in an efficient way," Sicilia told IANS during an interview.

Not just the telemedicine space, 5G can help hospitals make sense of humongous data-sets via multiple machines.

"Having low latency, high-bandwidth connections into MRI, X-ray and dialysis machines, etc will allow us to move some of the computing data into the Cloud, recalibrate and reload that machine with further instructions to detect various kinds of illnesses like Covid. It can entirely change what the machine does for us today," he elaborated.

Oracle has doubled down on its healthcare push for millions, and 5G has a key role in achieving that.

Health sciences capabilities are evolving, ushering in new ways of conducting clinical research including remote data collection, patient monitoring, and the adoption of 5G technology to support clinical trials.

The 5G network enables 24/7 monitoring of patients -- warning experts of impending episodes, whether low blood sugar, heart attack, or other vital signs -- requiring proactive intervention.

According to the company, the capabilities of 5G have empowered secure, accurate, fast data collection between trial participants and pharmaceutical companies.

In India, companies are now building 5G-ready ambulances. Bharti Airtel has a 5G-connected ambulance that can transform primary health care in emergency situations.

The state-of-the-art 5G ambulance is equipped with the latest medical equipment, patient monitoring applications, and telemetry devices that transmit the patient health data to the hospital in real-time.

In addition, it is also equipped with onboard cameras, camera-based Headgear, and 'Bodyc Cams' for paramedic staff -- all connected to the ultra-fast and low latency Airtel 5G network.

According to Oracle, low latency 5G can enable augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) immersive training, which could even be used to help doctors explain diagnoses and surgeries to patients with impactful 360 degree reconstructions of their anatomy.

According to Sicilia, 5G will facilitate real-time communication between a doctor and a patient, without any lag which is crucial.