KT and Samsung Medical Center introduced during a press conference on Monday various applications that utilize the fifth-generation (5G) network in the hospital complex.
On Tuesday, both companies announced that they had started an official test-run of 5G-powered medical solutions to improve healthcare.
Chairman of the Department of Pathology and Translational Genomics Jang Kee-taek said that certain procedures in the tertiary hospital would cost less with the use of RAN-based 5G network compared with building wired internet infrastructure.
Pyo Hong-ryul, Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology, explained that the hospital’s key priority in collaborating with KT was establishing a wireless system. The chairman added that Samsung Medical Center would ultimately expand the system allowing for sharing across devices such as tablets and smartphones.
Pyo gave an example to explain better the system stating that a process such as sending out 4-gigabytes of images taken from biopsies will only take an average speed of 1 gigabyte per second.
The system allows fast communication between colleagues in different buildings, examining images quickly, and delivering a precise diagnosis as fast as possible.
The 5G network will eliminate the need for doctors to go back and forth between buildings to check and verify results. The system would also make for easier observation of surgery remotely.
The tertiary hospital streamed a live video feed during the press conference that showed an on-screen communication between professors Sohn Tae-sung and Choi Jun-ho. At the same time, Sohn performed surgery on a patient.
Samsung Medical Center, however, has not yet adopted a cloud system and, in the meantime, will continue to operate its database to handle patient information.
Eventually, according to company officials, the hospital will ultimately tap into a cloud system, though they are not definite whether the hospital will utilize KT’s cloud system.
In terms of patient privacy, KT stated that the network would only be accessible by authorized devices only.
KT and Samsung Medical Center added that they would collaborate further to develop other medical solutions. In September last year, the two companies signed a memorandum of agreement (MoU). However, they are not yet sure when to commercialize their smart hospital solutions.
Officials also said that other Samsung Medical Center branches could also utilize the 5G-powered hospital system.
