The report draws on the experiences of the Liverpool 5G Testbed and makes six recommendations to Government on how best to realise 5G’s potential in health and social care: It also discusses some of the potential healthcare applications for 5G including: enabling remote monitoring of patients via connected devices, remote surgery, and real-time remote guidance of paramedics at the scene of an emergency by clinicians. The Liverpool 5G Health and Social Care Testbed is made up of a consortium of organisations, which is exploring how 5G technology can be used to reduce the digital divide while measuring the impact on patient monitoring and support, and the management of loneliness in older adults. Some of the applications, devices and digital content created as part of the Liverpool 5G Health and Social Care Testbed include: Sophie Weston, programme manager for communications infrastructure, techUK said: “Great digital connectivity is crucial for the UK and is essential to enable the adoption of enhanced technologies and applications that can help create a more open digital economy that works for everyone. The enhancement that 5G can bring to sectors such a manufacturing, logistics, transport, and healthcare will revolutionise our lives. We should be looking forward to the opportunities that 5G can bring and the way that this technology can help with our health, within the hospital and at home. techUK is delighted to be collaborating with Liverpool 5G to highlight the importance of 5G technologies and applications within health and social care.” Rosemary Kay, project director, Liverpool 5G Testbed said: “The innovative and transformative qualities of 5G can drive much needed changes to health and social care. 39 per cent of us will be over 65 by 2036, so more people are living with age related conditions like heart disease and there’s less money to treat them. In addition, by 2022 analogue services will disappear so we need to find reliable, affordable solutions to current telehealth services, by that date, if we’re to continue caring for everyone. These are our priorities at Liverpool 5G health and Social Care, we have created 5G-supported apps and devices that help people with ongoing conditions to live independently at home for longer, without needing a hospital stay. 5G technology is faster, more robust, and supports more data than current options, making it perfect for supporting health devices that people rely on to stay well.”
The Liverpool 5G Health and Social Care Testbed and Liverpool 5G have released a report advising the government on how 5G can support future health care services. Technology created during the Liverpool testbed includes a pharmacy assistant that helps patients take medicine safely at home, Safehouse Sensors that monitor changes in the behaviour of vulnerable people, and Push-to-Talk, a device that connect potentially lonely people to chat and play games and quizzes. The report advises the UK government to make use of 5G's durability, reliability and increased data capacity to improve future health care services.