With faster and more stable data connections, telemedicine—which provides medical diagnoses and patient care remotely and electronically—will reshape healthcare. For practitioners, next-gen mobile networks make way for improved education and collaboration. And for patients around the globe? Smarter and more accessible care, regardless of location, is on the horizon. Consider the possibilities for patients living in remote locations if more specialists performed care virtually and surgical robots were mainstream.
Danny Goel, surgeon and CEO of Precision OS, co-founded an immersive medical education technology company that leverages cutting-edge innovations like VR to deliver more engaging surgical education. For Goel, the fact that telemedicine enables care and expertise from anywhere in the world represents huge opportunities for caregivers, patients and the entire healthcare space.
“This means several things to me as a parent, a son, as well as a physician,” he said. “In all roles, I see the future of medicine to be very bright. Being able to collaborate while providing and/or receiving the most up-to-date care regardless of geographic location helps to equilibrate the healthcare disparity that exists both within and outside of developed countries.”
There are numerous examples of doctors using telemedicine and harnessing robotics to deliver healthcare services. And according to Goel, this trend, though now in its infancy, is expected to take shape in transformative ways.
“Technological advancements intersecting with medicine have allowed us to experience what others have termed the ‘great inflection of medicine,’” he said. “As a surgeon, it’s an exciting time as the digital ecosystem is rapidly growing. Connecting this network will be a major contribution of 5G. Relaying surgical experiences and techniques to other segments of the world in a reliable and secure medium will allow a major exchange of ideas and exponential collaboration and research.”
What most excites surgeons like Goel about high-speed, low-latency mobile networks is the inherent capability to receive real-time feedback, elevating the notion of deliberate practice for education and training to a whole new level. In short, said Goel, using 5G networks to help transfer high-quality content on mobile platforms will continue to be a catalyst for more widespread adoption of telemedicine.