Right connection leads to first 5G hospital

Chinese University of Hong Kong Medical Centre has partnered up with Huawei Technologies to become the first 5G smart hospital in Hong Kong.

The hospital incorporates several advanced 5G technologies, such as linen management, third party logistics management solution, infotainment and real-time location systems to enhance operational effectiveness and efficiency, medical safety, and to better patient experience.

The 5G upgrade provides greater bandwidth anywhere in the hospital, as well as highly reliable experimental loading. It also offers a high-bandwidth and low-latency network infrastructure.

Addressing privacy and information security issues, Huawei marketing manager Xu Su said the emergence of such issues is often not caused by the technology but by people and management mechanisms.

To minimize privacy issues from developing, Huawei would consider performing "de-identification" on patient information, meaning names, phone numbers and other information would be confidential and only illnesses and treatment approaches would be known.

Hospital chief executive Fung Hong said the 5G livestream system in operating theater, for example, would see cameras capture sharp real-time video images of surgeries for transmission to the auditorium.

This, he said, is to facilitate training for students from the medical and biomedical engineering faculties.

The footage can also be transmitted to experts who cannot be present at the hospital for the operation to enable them to give real-time advice, he said.

The linen management system, which leverages radio-frequency identification technology to monitor, track and manage everyday use of linen at every corner of the hospital.

Soiled items will be isolated from the rest of the linen and processed separately.

The third party logistics management solution allows pharmaceuticals and medical consumables to be digitally and systematically streamlined so that their inventory is sufficient at all times.

Beds will come with an infotainment system that improves patient convenience, such as allowing the checking of their medication and treatment details, billings, online family visits and meal ordering as well as accessing television channels and the internet.

Telemedicine is also supported by the system, allowing patients to consult their doctors at any time when needed.

The real-time location system can be used to track patients and equipment.

It is used for mobile equipment, like wheelchairs and stretchers, and high-risk patients, such as those with cognitive impairments by alerting staff when a patient leaves a ward.

Xu said Huawei will come up with a 5G for the hospital in the future as well as apply artificial intelligence.

"Chinese University of Hong Kong Medical Centre is a hospital with excellent internet connectivity and top-notch infrastructure," he said. "I hope more cutting-edge technologies can be applied to the hospital for further advancements."