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The same technology expected to make increasingly immersive virtual reality, driverless cars and other \u201csmart\u201d products possible will also improve hospital processes and patient care\u2014at least, that\u2019s what some early adopters are hoping.<\/p>\n

A small number of healthcare organizations in recent years have struck partnerships with telecommunications companies to try out 5G\u2014the newest generation of wireless internet\u2014for an expansive roster of innovative tech projects, including programs related to augmented and virtual reality, robot-assisted telesurgery, and data processing.<\/p>\n

The hope is that 5G will offer a significant improvement over 4G and other types of internet infrastructure, where many of those projects are already in use today.<\/p>\n

The 5G technology standard is expected to \u201csupport higher density with faster speeds,\u201d said Danny Kim, director of information technology at the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC.<\/p>\n

The institute is testing out 5G at a new cancer research and treatment facility it opened last year, making it one of the healthcare organizations taking the lead to try to figure out the best applications for 5G.<\/p>\n

Though 5G on its own won\u2019t be a game changer, it will underpin other innovations that could be. Designed to offer significantly quicker speed, lower latency and higher bandwidth, 5G could let organizations connect more devices to a network without worrying about the internet service slowing down, opening the door for better remote patient monitoring or tracking additional assets inside of a facility. It could also allow physicians to share large files more quickly and run virtual reality that\u2019s smoother and more responsive to commands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re thinking about 5G, we\u2019re also talking about (the internet of things), we\u2019re also talking about cloud computing, we\u2019re also talking about (artificial intelligence),\u201d said Michela Landoni, a telecoms analyst at Fitch Solutions Macro Research.<\/p>\n

Experts from five early adopters and one that is waiting shared how they\u2019re approaching 5G and where they see the most potential for the technology.<\/p>\n

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Vitas Healthcare, a hospice and palliative-care provider based in Miami, in 2018 launched a research project to test whether VR delivered through a 5G network could help reduce chronic pain and anxiety for patients receiving end-of-life care. Researchers hope that, in some cases, it could serve as an alternative therapy to pharmaceuticals like opioids.<\/p>\n

With VR, hospice patients can virtually walk through calming scenes like national parks or travel to Machu Picchu in Peru. Patients who are veterans have also had the option to visit war memorials.<\/p>\n

The study, which Vitas has had to pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, involved visiting hospice patients either at home or in a long-term care facility for the VR experiment. Patients used VR headsets from company Magic Leap, and AT&T, a partner on the research project, provided the 5G network and some of the VR video content.<\/p>\n

The study is jointly funded by Vitas and AT&T, with AT&T primarily supporting the launch of the pilot and Vitas funding the study\u2019s expansion since.<\/p>\n

Other healthcare organizations have tested VR for pain management. But 5G\u2019s quick speed and low latency could make it easier to download and stream large video files for VR while caring for a patient at home, according to Dr. Joseph Shega, chief medical officer at Vitas. \u201cWithout 5G, so many experiences are limited to what\u2019s in the headset,\u201d Shega said.
5G could also make it less likely that the video has lags that can make a patient feel nauseous.<\/p>\n

As part of the study, researchers track a patient\u2019s vital signs and ask patients to score their pain symptoms before and after the VR. It\u2019s too early to share study findings, but so far, patients have been responding well to VR, according to Shega.<\/p>\n

Shega describes himself originally as a \u201cskeptic\u201d of whether VR could truly improve pain management but has been impressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite surprised to feel how immersed you could become,\u201d Shega said.<\/p>\n

So far, a few dozen patients in California have tried out the VR as part of the study. As the pandemic subsides, Vitas plans to expand the study to its patients in other areas of the country.<\/p>\n

Eventually, after studying the technology, Vitas will consider expanding VR to its hospice patients across the U.S.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Ryan Madder, an interventional cardiologist at Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Spectrum Health, for the past seven years has been researching whether a doctor could perform vascular surgery on a patient from afar using remotely controlled robotic surgical systems. Ideally, that could help speed time to treatment if a patient is far away from a hospital with a specialist.<\/p>\n

When a patient is having a heart attack, every minute until treatment counts. \u201cThe longer that the artery is closed, the worse that patient does, the higher the risk that the patient is going to die from that heart attack (and) the more damage gets done to their heart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Initially, Madder\u2019s research into robot-assisted telesurgery involved testing whether a doctor could control a robotic surgical system from one room over.<\/p>\n

But the advent of new internet generations, such as with 5G, has opened up possibilities for performing a procedure from many miles away.<\/p>\n

In surgery, any delay between a physician\u2019s motion and the robotic system\u2019s reaction could be disastrous\u2014so 5G\u2019s low latency is a particularly promising attribute.<\/p>\n

In 2019, he simulated a minimally invasive heart procedure that spanned more than 3,000 miles through a project with Verizon. Madder, stationed just outside of Boston, remotely controlled a robotic system from Siemens Healthineers company Corindus\u2014another partner on the project\u2014to operate on vascular simulators in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Madder tested performing the procedure\u2014a percutaneous coronary intervention\u2014from Boston to San Francisco using a wired network and a 5G wireless network.<\/p>\n

While the procedures had slightly greater latency compared with remote surgeries that spanned a shorter distance\u2014from Boston to New York City, which are only about 200 miles apart\u2014the perceived latency for the Boston-San Francisco procedure was still \u201cimperceptible\u201d to Madder on both the wired and 5G wireless networks, according to study results published last year in the journal Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the results of that study, I don\u2019t think distance is a significant barrier for what we\u2019re going to be able to accomplish in the future for telerobotics in healthcare,\u201d Madder said. \u201cIt\u2019s very possible that telerobotics could almost be connected from any location in the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madder\u2019s foray into 5G wasn\u2019t the first experiment to test robot-assisted telesurgery with 5G. A surgeon in China performed a robot-assisted telesurgery in 2019, albeit on a laboratory animal, and a surgeon in Italy that same year directed a surgery from afar over a 5G network.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s still more research needed before integrating robot-assisted telesurgery that spans such a far distance into patient care, including continuing to validate the technology and addressing questions like medical licensure and cybersecurity. Madder said he\u2019s not sure how far off the healthcare industry is from seeing robot-assisted telesurgery become standard in patient care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that\u2019s very clear to me is that the technology currently exists to allow this to happen,\u201d he said. \u201cThe technology is there. We just need to continue to understand how to best apply it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Veterans Health Administration for the past year has been connecting facilities to 5G in select markets in California, Florida and Washington state.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Veterans Affairs Department announced a research project to deploy 5G from Verizon at the VA Palo Alto (Calif.) Health Care System as part of a project to experiment with augmented reality, such as testing whether AR paired with 5G could improve surgical planning by quickly turning CT and MRI scans into detailed 3D images.<\/p>\n

In February, the VA also shared plans to pilot AT&T\u2019s 5G at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle and T-Mobile\u2019s 5G at the Miami VA Healthcare System. The VA\u2019s investments into 5G so far have built on existing services agreements with telecommunications companies, according to a VA spokesperson.<\/p>\n

The VA hasn\u2019t established which use cases it will test first in Seattle and Miami.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really early,\u201d said Daniel Mesimer, director of WAN\/LAN infrastructure engineering and provisioning at the department.
The first step at those sites will involve testing mobile wireless hotspots and other devices on the 5G network to assess \u201cbase functionality\u201d for speed and connectivity, Mesimer said. They\u2019re considering projects involving AR, telehealth and wearables, but testing will ultimately inform which 5G projects the VA will tackle and when.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to identify areas that we can use immediately and test out that technology,\u201d Mesimer said. Then, \u201cgrow from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A cancer research institute at University of Southern California in early 2020 revealed that a new building it was constructing would include a 5G deployment. The Ellison Institute opened the building\u2014which houses cancer research labs and a treatment clinic\u2014last year. The facility will include 5G service from AT&T, which is currently being installed. The building is designed to be a \u201csmart facility\u201d that\u2019s \u201cblanketed with technology,\u201d said the Ellison Institute\u2019s Kim.<\/p>\n

One of the first projects the institute plans to test with 5G is for 3D pathology, a system its researchers have developed to compile flat images of cancer tumors and turn them into 3D visualizations for pathologists and researchers to view up close with VR. That\u2019s a project that requires low latency and high bandwidth, so it\u2019s a good fit for 5G, Kim said.<\/p>\n

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Emory Healthcare last year deployed 5G from Verizon at its innovation lab. The Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare Innovation Hub, which launched in 2018, serves as a mechanism for Emory to collaborate with partner companies\u2014so far, there are nine\u2014on developing, testing and validating digital innovation projects to improve healthcare.<\/p>\n

Emory, Verizon and the companies participating in Emory\u2019s Healthcare Innovation Hub plan to work together to try out projects related to 5G, looking at possibilities like using AR and VR in medical training, quicker and higher-quality video for telehealth, and connecting more internet-connected medical devices to the network without running into bandwidth issues.<\/p>\n

In the fall, Emory will bring 5G to a surgical skills lab and a few operating rooms in the new Emory Musculoskeletal Institute, so that the innovation hub can work on developing AR and VR use cases for surgical training.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also started laying the groundwork for a \u201cconnected ambulance\u201d project that uses 5G, in which an ambulance could be outfitted with imaging equipment that rapidly transmits data to a physician at an emergency department for analysis, so that a patient suffering from a stroke could be diagnosed more quickly.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re still working on planning for those projects, figuring out how to best study them.<\/p>\n

But by becoming an early adopter to wire up their space with 5G, Emory can \u201cbegin exposing people (to 5G) and getting them to understand it\u2014its assets and its limitations,\u201d said Dr. Scott Boden, vice president for business innovation and chair of the orthopedics department at Emory Healthcare.<\/p>\n

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Not all health systems are rushing to step into the 5G ring. \u201cIt\u2019s very exciting,\u201d said Reid Stephan, vice president and chief information officer for Boise, Idaho-based St. Luke\u2019s Health System. He\u2019s particularly interested in the possibility of using 5G to improve telehealth access, process data more quickly and improve VR.<\/p>\n

Stephan estimated the industry is a year or two away from seeing the first validated 5G uses, \u201cbut I still think we\u2019re a ways out from seeing some of the true widespread benefit coming to fruition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Stephan said 5G is a topic other C-suite executives at St. Luke\u2019s have expressed interest in and occasionally asked him about over the past year. The health system is considering whether to add 5G to its facilities\u2014such as in a new clinic that\u2019s being constructed or in a hospital that\u2019s being remodeled. But there are no immediate plans to deploy it.<\/p>\n

Before deploying 5G, the health system would need to establish a specific use case related to quality of care or patient experience that \u201creally makes sense based on the level of time \u2026 and potentially investment we\u2019d have to make to do this,\u201d Stephan said.<\/p>\n

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Published at Sat, 20 Mar 2021 05:09:58 +0000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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