EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.
Recent Searches
The 5G evolution is rapidly approaching, and healthcare providers who delay their transition will fall far behind their 5G -enabled counterparts.
In Brief
- 5G deployment has begun in earnest all over the world, and healthcare providers have a lot to gain from the transition to this new technology.
- As the foundation for other services and solutions, 5G has the potential to vastly improve the patient experience and drive transformational change within the sector.
- Like other structural improvements, healthcare providers need to actively pursue the transition in order to gain any traction.
The healthcare sector has seen its fair share of new and exciting advancements over the past few years. To take the industry to the next level, 5G is on the horizon, ready to bring in a plethora of opportunities. As an emerging technology, many questions surround 5G, including what it is and how healthcare providers should react to it. To tackle these questions, this report provides a glimpse into how 5G will impact the sector and how organizations can better prepare themselves for the upcoming advancements.
What is 5G and why is it different?
5G is one of the keys for healthcare organizations to unlock the full potential of a list of tech- solutions. That will enable them to improve their operations and services drastically. Early adopters will reshape the sector and gain the upper hand, opening a rift in patient confidence between those with and without 5G-enabled solutions.
Earlier cellular generations focused simply on improving and adding to mobile communications. However, 5G has three core features that can be utilized depending on the task at hand:
- Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) can be considered as the direct evolution of 4G. It is used in the same manner as 4G but is expected to be up to 100 times faster, opening whole new fields of services.
- Massive machine-type communication (mMTC) allows you to connect 1,000 times more devices than 4G in a given area. This industry-focused feature is excellent for enabling the internet of things. It allows devices to become significantly more energy -efficient, supporting their placement and use in previously impossible places.
- Ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) provides unfailing connections with best-in-class response times. Like mMTC, this service is tailored for businesses and organizations rather than consumers, and it will untether technologies and solutions that were formerly hard-wired.
Overall, 5G will usher in a new era of communications with significant improvements. As the centerpiece in a web of solutions, 5G is expected to transform industries and their functions, including the healthcare sector.
How can 5G transform healthcare?
As stated in Vision e-hälsa 2025, Sweden aspires to become the best in the world at utilizing digital tools and e-health opportunities by 2025. While the Swedish healthcare quality and results continuously rank high in international comparisons, it faces increasing challenges concerning the societal and technological shifts. With less than five years to go, Swedish healthcare’s digital development and competitive climate are expected to intensify, with 5G requiring healthcare providers to respond even faster.
The healthcare sector already generates massive amounts of data every day. While various smart solutions built on data are already delivering fruitful results, it is still crucial to solve data volume, quality, sharing and governance issues to achieve the full data potential. With the introduction of 5G, it will be possible to transfer a greater volume of information, which directly raises the bar for the quality of data that can be shared. 5G technologies have the potential to achieve real-time interactivity of medical equipment and remote wearable devices and ultimately allow us to form an “intelligent network” in the healthcare ecosystem. Here, various participants, such as patients and doctors, can share and exchange real-time information by plugging into the secured central network. This would, for example, be applicable in a connected ambulance, which provides urgent lifesaving care and significantly reduces preparation time upon arrival at the hospital.
Traditional healthcare delivery has been designed around the conventional care provider. Over the years, a gradual shift from “hospital- centric” to “patient- centric” has been bringing care closer to the patients at locations like community health centers and even patients’ homes. With the rollout of 5G and its related technologies, we can expect the transformation to happen at a faster pace in the coming years. This leads to the concept of “connected healthcare,” which utilizes information technologies to connect different parts of the healthcare system to provide healthcare remotely and even virtually. In addition, this will significantly improve collaboration and knowledge transfer between healthcare professionals and institutions in different geographical locations.
What should healthcare providers consider while adopting 5G?
As discussed, there is a clear case for optimism regarding how the current healthcare challenges will be tackled. However, the potential itself is not enough. It is still incumbent on healthcare providers to actively seek changes by strategically thinking ahead and daring to take the necessary steps.
EY proposes a holistic approach for 5G adoption, where the entire healthcare value chain needs to be considered, including regulators, patients, research institutes, healthcare providers, 5G network operators, equipment manufacturers and software providers. For healthcare providers to succeed with the adoption of 5G, it is essential to address issues that may occur in all parts of the value chain:
- Mobilization and collaboration of participants in the value chain
For a 5G-enabled solution to work, collaboration is required along the entire healthcare value chain. As key stakeholders, healthcare providers need to take a leading role in working with other groups to reach goals related to 5G.
- Data and system integration
Data is central to 5G. However, information barriers caused by fragmented data sources have long been a major issue. Lack of interoperability or poorly enforced integration standards are currently obstructing healthcare data exchange and data-based solutions. As data becomes increasingly important, healthcare providers must adjust their information infrastructure development. Scalable business and operating models that enable system integration will be a crucial step for 5G adoption in healthcare.
- Digital innovation and change management in the healthcare sector
By nature, the healthcare sector is risk-averse, operating under strict legislation and stringent practicing standards. Now, with the enormous potential of 5G and related technologies, the sector faces even more pressure to readjust its ways of working.
To prepare for 5G and fully explore its potential, healthcare providers need to see digital innovation and change journeys from new perspectives. To start, equip personnel in cross-functional teams with the tools and knowledge needed to innovate. Then, evaluate the current processes, organizational and technical infrastructure to identify and tackle the silos that currently hinder changes. Perform a deep dive into the operations to prioritize areas where real value-adding business cases exist. And finally, produce an innovation pipeline with clearly defined objectives that will help yield actionable deliverables and expected outcomes.
In addition, the following challenges outside the healthcare organizations need to be addressed:
- Regulatory considerations
Regulatory considerations related to GDPR and cybersecurity will affect applicability for healthcare innovations. As 5G expands the possibilities for data, healthcare providers need to engage early and often with regulators to enable innovations in the right direction.
- Network deployment and support
The key challenge for telecom providers is to create the right commercial models. The most relevant question for healthcare is how 5G interacts with new enterprise solutions, such as cloud technologies, AI and robotic process automation. To deliver maximum upside, networks and healthcare providers must work together effectively.
While 5G adoption in the healthcare sector is still at an early stage, thinking a step ahead and preparing for the coming advancements is crucial. That will allow healthcare providers to stay on top of the changes and provide the best possible outcomes for their patients.
Contributing authors:
Summary
5G enables rapid access to care, whether acute or negligible, and in a hospital or remote. But many of these new solutions are not just going to be plug and play for the health care providers. Therefore, 5G will further separate healthcare providers and modern data-driven organizations benefitting from the technological acceleration from those who cannot.