5G for Remote Surgery:

This year, surgeons in Florida working with Ericsson, were able to operate on remote patients in Dubai and Shanghai, using 5G technology, according to Mischa Dohler, Ericsson vice president-emerging technologies.

A hospital in China used a 5G-enabled robot to perform spinal surgery on patients, and doctors used VR headsets to livestream the operation. The robot implanted over 62 pedicle screws in the patients’ spinal cord.  Here’s a pic of that:

Photo by Wang Fei/For China Daily

Dohler said he’s working with the White House, FCC, NTIA, Food and Drug Administration and others to make remote surgery “a reality.” More widespread use of the technology won’t happen unless smaller carriers also get involved. We will have not only humans using your networks, but also machines more and more,” Dohler added.

Gartner’s market research underscores the importance of 5G SA, predicting that by 2025, it will be the foundation for the majority of applications demanding sub-10 millisecond latency. This transition is not merely a technical upgrade but a strategic enabler for industries poised to benefit from real-time data processing and decision-making.  However, the ultra low latency depends on two 3GPP Release 16 specs – 5GNR enhancements for URLLC and URLLC in the 5G SA core network– being completed, performance tested and implemented.  That has not happened yet and without it there can’t be any 5G URLLC use cases like remote surgery!

Real-time remote surgeries, once a concept of futuristic medicine, are becoming a reality. The ability to perform surgical procedures from thousands of miles away, with real-time response and precision, could revolutionize healthcare accessibility and outcomes. For example, a pilot project involving 5G SA-enabled remote surgery successfully demonstrated how surgeons could operate with millisecond-level precision, mitigating geographical barriers to specialized medical care.

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Ericsson’s Dohler predicted growing use of augmented and virtual reality and AI “agents,” computer programs capable of performing tasks autonomously, which people will use as part of their daily lives. New technology will require networks that can handle increased traffic, he said. New data traffic patterns “will hit you at some point this decade,” he said. “You will need to do some bold moves.”

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References:

https://www.ericsson.com/en/blog/2024/3/cutting-the-cord-lifesaving-telesurgery-in-the-age-of-5g

https://communicationsdaily.com/article/2024/04/19/remote-surgery-and-other-new-use-cases-show-reason-to-move-to-5g-ericsson-official-2404180052

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201908/29/WS5d670e17a310cf3e355686fa.html

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dawn-new-era-navigating-shift-from-5g-nsa-sa-tayroni-fkvre/