Doctors in rural areas may experience a workload unparalleled by their urban counterparts. According to a 2017 nationwide study by the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program, rural areas had only one-eighth the number of specialists per 100,000 residents as urban areas did.
Hospital closures in recent years may have expanded that gap. And the challenge accelerated with COVID-19, fueling burnout among medical practitioners in rural areas that were already stretched thin.
Now, though, there’s a viable solution that can begin to narrow the urban-rural healthcare gap. The high speed, low latency, and greater capacity and reliability of 5G promise to transform healthcare delivery.