Impact on Healthcare Systems through 5G

Introduction:

5G or fifth-generation mobile communication network is not only about high-speed data rates and better connectivity services, but rather it aims to move into the non-conventional areas such as agriculture, health and automotive and integrate each of them in the communication network.

This extended outreach of the fifth-generation network is due to the additional usage scenarios which have been incorporated (or due to the pathway laid out for the evolution of the technology) apart from the usual refinements in the network parameter aspects.

 Keywords: 5G Healthcare, Robotic surgery, Telemedicine, eHealth, mHealth, Remote patient monitoring, Telehealth, Remote health, etc.

5G towards modern health:

5G can bring a paradigm shift to healthcare, powered by remote healthcare and rapid progress in emergency diagnosis techniques shortly.

Future medical services with 5G:

Future medical services which can be facilitated or enhanced by 5G as identified by Dolcera includes:

1. Wearables:
   1. 5G will allow not only high-speed transfers of big data but will also be able to do it with ultra-low latency
   2. IoT & 4G have already made wearable a popular choice with shipments expected to be 222.3 million in 2021^[1]
2. Robotic surgeries:
   1. With 5G technology, surgeons could potentially perform surgeries remotely across-the-globe that are impossible today.
   2. The estimated potential for this market is driving medical device companies to invest heavily in medical robotic systems.
   3. Few active deals from big players include:
      • Medtronic acquisition of Mazor Robotics, a developer of spine surgery guidance systems ^[2]
      • Johnson & Johnson also made a $3.4 billion deal to acquire Auris ^[3]

3. Remote patient monitoring:
   1. Remote patient monitoring services using video conferencing in case of emergency services. This is used to get opinions of the specialist without traversing the physical distance.
   2. The global remote patient monitoring market size was $703 million in 2015 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.0% to reach $2,130 million ^[4]
4. Telemedicine
   1. With 5G, healthcare systems can enable mobile networks to handle telemedicine appointments, which can greatly increase the reach of the program.
   2. The telemedicine market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16.5% from 2017 to 2023. Telemedicine will need a network that can support real-time high-quality video ^[5].

5G Specialties for the healthcare industry:

With the advent of massive devices connectivity, ultra-reliable data transfer, with low latency and better coverage area, etc. in 5G (Shown in Figure.1), can deeply impact the remote healthcare and emergency medical services which are a bottleneck in the healthcare industry.

Figure.1 5G Specialties

Healthcare at the heart of 5G Network:

5G Network Requirements for the healthcare industries can be viewed in Figure 2.

Figure.2 5G Network Requirements for the Healthcare Industries

One of the key aspects of 5G technology is to provide ultra-reliability (Ultra-reliable) (1 in billion bits) along with a latency order of one millisecond. The latency and reliability stem from the fact that the actions of the machine need to be coordinated in real-time, else a wrong incision or a cut on a wound, or damage to critical organs is very likely to occur.

One additional important aspect that is to be kept in mind is the security aspect. Medical identity theft, invasion of health privacy, and medical data management will become more challenging as massively increased numbers of devices and greater usage of virtualization and the cloud will mean a broader, more varied cyber-attack surface.

5G Healthcare Value chain:

The lists of companies identified by Dolcera which are part of the 5G healthcare system are provided in Figure.3 below:

Figure.3 5G in Healthcare- Value chain

3GPP Activity:

Communication service requirements for critical medical applications are being discussed in 3GPP meetings. Work items that provide normative requirements to enable a 3GPP system and to adequately provide the connectivity between medical devices and critical medical applications identified in TR 22.826

Table 1: 3GPP Specs ^[6]

Table 2: 5G Healthcare TDocs

Philips, Nokia, B-Com, and others are the companies that are participating in 3GPP meetings and contributing to TDocs. These TDocs are mainly focused on tele-surgeries, health, QoS requirements.

IP Study:

• IP related to 5G healthcare including 5G IoT, URLLC, Remote patient monitoring is on the rise. Dolcera PCS based study on the patent filing activity is shown in figure 4 and the major players are shown in figure 5. Progressive patent filing activity indicates decent growth in the near future too.

 Table 3: Example Patents

Figure.4 IP Filing Trend

Figure.5 IP Top Players

5G healthcare sector shows that patent filing activity is being actively persuaded by an agglomeration of industries including telecom and network infrastructure, pharmaceutical, medical equipment manufacturers, etc.

• Potential IP activity found from the telecom and network infrastructure providing companies in the healthcare sector to meet high real-time traffic demand with emerging 5G mobile networks.
• Samsung, Qualcomm, LG, Medtronic, Huawei are some of the active filing companies.
• Key IP filing areas include: Telemedicine, Remote or Tele-surgeries, and Remote patient management

Conclusion

Through 5G networks, the healthcare system will improve the quality of care and patient experience, reduce the expenses of healthcare, and more such benefits. 5G is helping companies operating at different points of the value chain to partner, vertically integrate, & make financial deals with each other. A clear increase in demonstrations & trials of URLLC shows that the healthcare use cases will continue to innovate and expand.3GPP activity from companies Philips, Orange, B-com, etc. towards 5G healthcare indicates future technological progress. Qualcomm, Samsung, LG Corp, Huawei, Philips, Medtronic, etc. are some of the top filing IP companies in 5G healthcare.

Authors: Abdul Hafeez, Modassir Bashir, Sateesh Thippirisetti, Naga Manoj and Ashish Jha

References

[1]. Wearables shipments to hit 222.3 million units by 2021: IDC

[2]. Mazor Robotics acquired by Medtronic

[3]. Johnson & Johnson Announces Completion of Acquisition of Auris Health, Inc

[4]. Remote Patient Monitoring Market by Condition

[5]. Global telemedicine market to experience a 16.5% annual growth rate through 2023

[6]. 3GPP TDocs (written contributions) at meetings (SA#85)