While the government and industries are pinning high hopes on 5G, considering it as key which can unlock huge possibilities for India for bringing in transformation in crucial sectors ranging from agriculture, health to education, the technology comes with its own challenges. Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO at Airtel Enterprise Business, in an interview talked to Business Today about how 5G can transform the Indian healthcare landscape, create jobs and the tough road ahead for the technology. Edited excerpts:
Ganesh Lakshminarayanan: Features of 5G network can prove valuable in many areas of healthcare including telehealth, remote surgery, transferring large medical files, tracking patient movement inside facilities, using wearable devices for real-time monitoring, and delivering continual treatment information and support to patients. As use of 5G in healthcare increases, with its applications boosted by advances in robotics, IoT and AI, a new connected healthcare ecosystem will take shape. The ecosystem will align with the new 4P medicine – predictive, preventative, personalized and participatory.
However, in assessing the impact that 5G could have on healthcare, it’s important to keep expectations in check. Firstly, widespread implementation of 5G is still some ways off. Although there are pockets of 5G installations, the availability is limited in urban India, currently. In addition, broad consumer acceptance of 5G applications like wearable medical devices and telemedicine is unlikely to occur in the next few years, though the COVID-19 pandemic has probably accelerated this timeline significantly. There are concerns about security and privacy raised about healthcare records being transferred across enormous, often global public networks.
GL: It is a common assumption that technological advancement will threaten job opportunities and human efforts will be replaced by automation. However, the growing demand for digital healthcare solutions to make quality healthcare available to the masses has created opportunities in a variety of fields in India. With information technology enabling efficient management of the healthcare industry in areas such as statistical documentation, access to medical databases, and easier access to research on upcoming medical trends, employment opportunities have grown in tandem. With the rollout of 5G technologies a 20% increase in hiring is anticipated for positions such as networking engineers, experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning, user experience designers, cloud computing experts, cyber security specialists, and experts in data science and data analytics.
GL: The expansion of 5G networks in India will have a pronounced impact on the delivery of healthcare services in the country. It will not only allow treatment of patients remotely but also assist doctors to do it from virtually anywhere, with no pauses or delays. 5G will offer ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC) for remote surgery, which needs extremely low latency and high reliability. Recently, Airtel and Apollo Hospitals conducted India’s first 5G-driven, AI-guided colonoscopy trials in collaboration with technology companies HealthNet Global, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Avesha. The trial was carried out using AI on Airtel’s 5G technology, which has ultra-low latency and high processing capabilities, resulting in faster and more accurate detection of colon cancer. This technology provides physicians with an “extra pair of eyes” and increases the detection rate of polyps, saving lives and improving patient care.
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