By Nigel Waters,
Customer Business Executive, APAC
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, in March 2020, we have seen how communications service providers and large hospitals have come together to leverage telemedicine, ensuring seamless communications between doctors and patients. Patients, especially in far-flung places, can consult with doctors about their symptoms without having to visit hospitals. Much of these are enabled by fixedline broadband and 4G wireless connectivity, however, 5G will ensure that IT services and applications, within the healthcare industry are better connected than ever—and can leverage the advancement in IoT, robotics, and AI to help doctors and patients alike. 5G has the potential, to solve one of our biggest healthcare services delivery challenges.
Like many other Asian nations, we have a critical shortage of doctors and trained medical staff. And being an archipelago comprising more than 7000 small and large islands, things for us in the Philippines are even more difficult. One of our biggest challenges is that our best medical facilities and doctors are mostly located in Metro Manila. Indeed, according to market research firm Statista, as of April 2020, there were 10 doctors per 10,000 people in this region. In contrast, in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), this figure drops to just 0.8.
With such a doctor-patient ratio, delivering last-mile healthcare services across much of our country represents a daunting challenge. This is where technology like 5G can help. 5G, can open new horizons for remote healthcare or telehealth. The convergence of ultra high- speed Internet, IoT, and advancements in AI and robotics will make remote delivery of even advanced healthcare services mainstream. It offers an important opportunity to build solutions that make primary, secondary, preventive, and in some cases, even tertiary care accessible to all.
Reinventing telemedicine
In most cases, the most crucial information required to perform a medical diagnosis is the patient’s vitals (e.g. temperature, blood pressure, pulse rates, respiratory rates). Such data can be efficiently captured using medical devices at the patient’s location in real time via video conferencing, mobile video calls and computer networks. Indeed, with the aid of a quality telemedicine application, even patients in the most remote locations can consult with medical specialists in Metro Manila without the need to travel.
To work, it requires a high-speed network that supports the real-time capture and transmission of high-quality video and critical medical data. While traditionally, this would require a high-speed network with fixed-line connectivity, in areas where such a service is not readily accessible, such as remote locations, 5G’s stable, reliable, high-speed connectivity and low latency has the potential to make this possible.
Widening the reach of secondary and tertiary care
Even beyond primary care, a real-time, high-speed data exchange, supported by a mobile 5G network, allows for the further evolution of telemedicine, enabling patients to be treated sooner and receive access to any specialist connected to the system. Meanwhile, primary care doctors, specialists, other medical staff, and labs across the country (and even beyond), can collaborate to provide the best specialized consultative care. This includes sharing imaging diagnostics such as MRI and CT scans, which typically produce very large files — sometimes in gigabytes. Moreover, it allows advanced diagnostics centers to be opened in non-metros and smaller towns, without the need to employ a local specialist doctor.
Preventive and post-operative care
Using wearables (IoT devices) like a wristband or watch that can measure and share critical vitals in real time, health care providers can monitor large volumes of patients and provide personalized and preventive care at reduced cost to all. This also extends to remote monitoring as part of preventive or post-operative care.
To make this vision a reality, it will require extensive collaboration between, communications service providers, hospitals, e-health enablers, and remote monitoring devices/IoT wearable manufacturers to create an end-to-end e-health solution that suits the unique needs of the Philippines. For service providers specifically, it’s also an important opportunity to extend their footprint beyond connectivity into new avenues that monetize 5G. And since hospitals are already their established enterprise customers, they’re well-placed to make the first move.
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Nigel Waters is a seasoned telecommunications executive with over 30 years of experience in the field. Having worked in the past for companies such as Vodafone, Ericsson, and Nokia, and now for Amdocs, Nigel has the benefit of market experience from both the communications service providers and the vendor perspectives. He has lived and worked in Asia for the past 20 years, with the last 16 being based in the Philippines.
