Abstract

     The latest 5G technology is being introduced the Internet of Things (IoT) Era. The study aims to focus the 5G technology and the current healthcare challenges as well as to highlight 5G based solutions that can handle the COVID-19 issues in different arenas. This paper provides a comprehensive review of 5G technology with the integration of other digital technologies (like AI and machine learning, IoT objects, big data analytics, cloud computing, robotic technology, and other digital platforms) in emerging healthcare applications. From the literature, it is clear that the promising aspects of 5G (such as super-high speed, high throughput, low latency) have a prospect in healthcare advancement. Now healthcare is being adopted 5G-based technologies to aid improved health services, more effective medical research, enhanced quality of life, better experiences of medical professionals and patients in anywhere–anytime. This paper emphasizes the evolving roles of 5G technology for handling the epidemiological challenges. The study also discusses various technological challenges and prospective for developing 5G powered healthcare solutions. Further works will incorporate more studies on how to expand 5G-based digital society as well as to resolve the issues of safety–security–privacy and availability–accessibility–integrity in future health crises.

Introduction

     The latest wireless mobile phone technology, Fifth Generation (5G), was first widely deployed in 2019. While 5G network is at developing stage, some countries including China, South Korea, the UK and the US commercially deployed 5G networks, and some other developed countries are being expecting to put forward commercial 5G networks by 2025 [1]. Comparing to the existing wireless networks, 5G provides high data rate, lower latency, high volume of devices connectivity with energy efficiency, high reliability and mobility support [2]. Thus, the services offered by 5G mobile networks are generally categorized into three group, namely (i) “enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB)”, (ii) “ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC)”, and (iii) “massive machine-type communications (mMTC)” [3]. In 2019, 67% of the world people have subscribed to cellar devices, of which 65% have used smart phones [4], and 204 billion apps have been downloaded [5]. About 3.8 billion public have eagerly used social media reported in January 2020 [6]. As the number of digital devices connectivity with 5G is dramatically increasing, the extent of variation in exposure to radiofrequency arenas is still under investigation.

Conclusion

     The use of 5G network in integrating other digital technologies (like AI and machine learning, IoMTs, big data analytics, cloud computing, etc.) is now a reality in healthcare. From the literature, it is clear that 5G enabled technologies as well as intelligent systems have a prospect to improve healthcare services, such as medical diagnosis, health monitoring, treatment, management, etc. As the 5G poses non-ionizing radiation, there is no significant health risk of 5G RF wave below the recommended safety level. There is no evidence that 5G signal causes the spread of the coronavirus. Moreover, 5G enabled digital technologies have been used for limiting the COVID-19 outbreak, and enhancing the public-health strategies in 2020. Some advanced technology giants are conducting their researches on 5G related applications that will combat against the health risks of any undesirable epidemics. The successful utilization of 5G technology to tackle healthcare challenges will enhance the acceptance of such technologies for other sectors in the future.

     As it is a new field of research, some issues are to be considered in deployment of 5G network in healthcare including infrastructure development, technical standards, effective regulations and policy, privacy protection and security, as well as availability of research data. Further works will incorporate more study on how to expand 5G based digital society as well as to resolve some issues, such as safety–security–privacy, availability–accessibility–integrity, and to augment resilience to future health crises. It is also required to compile laws and prepare proper guidelines to deal with ethical and legal counteractions in managing the online services during the emergency situations. With the new technological innovations, 5G network will provide a complete pathway for a smart society with various promising healthcare applications.

 Abstract

Abbreviations

Keywords

1. Introduction

2. Methods

3. Results

4. Discussion

Studies in humans

Authors’ contributions

Funding

Submission declaration

Declaration of Competing Interest

References

Abstract

Background
Restrictions to direct patient contact resulting from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic left some medical students near graduation in need of a required critical care medicine (CCM) sub-internship. A group of educators deployed a virtual curriculum utilizing telemedicine and electronic health record (EHR) technologies.

Methods
Nine students participated in a formal curriculum of high-value critical care medicine topics designed to meet the learning objectives of the in-person experience. Students obtained patient histories and directed physical examinations virtually via telemedicine. They followed assigned patients, submitted clinical documentation, and practiced electronic order entry using a non-production EHR copy. At conclusion these students completed the same evaluation used for “in-person” CCM rotations earlier in the year.

Results
Students rated the virtual rotation comparably to the traditional rotation in most evaluated criteria. Lower rated areas included “perform minor procedures”, “patient counseling”, and “interprofessional experiences”. Students’ narrative responses specifically noted strengths of the “student focus” and the ability to practice in an EHR copy.

Discussion
Students and preceptors generally found that the virtual curriculum provided adequate educational opportunities. Certain areas were clearly lacking, as expected. Students felt the dedication of the faculty to the students’ educational needs was the most important factor contributing to the success of the program. The results suggest several ways telemedicine and EHR technologies might enhance clinical medical education in the future.

Conclusion
This methodology was successful in providing elements of a CCM rotation experience. This technology could prove efficacious for primary care rotations where in-person training is not feasible due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

I. INTRODUCTION

II. REALTED WORK

III. SYSTEM DESIGN

IV. CASE STUDY

V. CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Recently, telemedicine has been widely applied in remote diagnosis, treatment and counseling, where the Internet of Things (IoT) technology plays an important role. In the process of telemedicine, data are collected from remote medical equipment, such as CT machine and MRI machine, and then transmitted and reconstructed locally in three-dimensions. Due to the large amount of data to be transmitted in the reconstructed model and the small storage capacity, data need to be compressed progressively before transmission. On this basis, we proposed a lightweight progressive transmission algorithm based on large data visualization in telemedicine to improve transmission efficiency and achieve lossless transmission of original data. Moreover, a novel four-layer system architecture based on IoT has been introduced, including the sensing layer, analysis layer, network layer and application layer. In this way, the three-dimensional reconstructed data at the local end is compressed and transmitted to the remote end, and then visualized at the remote end to show reconstructed 3D models. Thus, it is conducive to doctors in remote real-time diagnosis and treatment, and then realize the data processing and transmission between doctors, patients and medical equipment.

INTRODUCTION

Recently, Internet of Things (IoT) has been widely applied in information technology (IT) which is a concept of connecting physical objects via networks for data collection and sharing. The ‘Things’ in IoT is defined as devices connected to the Internet and able to transmit information to other devices [1]. There are many systems that can be associated with IoT, including green agriculture monitoring system [2], intelligent transportation system [3], environment monitoring system [4], and applications in healthcare industry [5], etc. The connected health model was proposed as an IoT aspect of healthcare, and the applications of connected health are aiming to improve health care services [6]. Medical IoT is considered as a basis of connected health, where the data exchanging is achieved among doctors, patients and medical equipment [7]. Medical IoT can break the regional restriction to doctors, where medical data and case history can be shared. Meanwhile, the real-time monitoring and diagnosis of patients via Medical IoT greatly reduces the cost and time for transporting patients, and improves the cure rate of emergency diseases [8]. The medical big data is defined as a collection based on health-related data which is produced in the entire diagnosis process, from clinic registration to hospital follow-up of patients [9], [10].