5G in Healthcare: From COVID-19 to Future Challenges

Worldwide up to May 2022 there have been 515 million cases of COVID-19 infection and over 6 million deaths. The World Health Organization estimated that 115,000 healthcare workers died from COVID-19 from January 2020 to May 2021. This toll on human lives prompted this review on 5G based networking primarily on major components of healthcare delivery: diagnosis, patient monitoring, contact tracing, diagnostic imaging tests, vaccines distribution, emergency medical services, telesurgery and robot-assisted tele-ultrasound. The positive impact of 5G as core technology for COVID-19 applications enabled exchange of huge data sets in fangcang (cabin) hospitals and real-time contact tracing, while the low latency enhanced robot-assisted tele-ultrasound, and telementoring during ophthalmic surgery. In other instances, 5G provided a supportive technology for applications related to COVID-19, e.g., patient monitoring. The feasibility of 5G telesurgery was proven, albeit by a few studies on real patients, in very low samples size in most instances. The important future applications of 5G in healthcare include surveillance of elderly people, the immunosuppressed, and nano- oncology for Internet of Nano Things (IoNT). Issues remain and these require resolution before routine clinical adoption. These include infrastructure and coverage; health risks; security and privacy protection of patients' data; 5G implementation with artificial intelligence, blockchain, and IoT; validation, patient acceptance and training of end-users on these technologies.

Automated summary

This article reviews the application of 5G in the context of COVID-19, discussing its positive impact on diagnosis, patient monitoring, contact tracing, and other healthcare aspects. It also explores the future applications of 5G in healthcare, while highlighting the challenges that need to be addressed before widespread adoption.