Application of 5G in epidemic prevention and control in medical system

At the beginning of 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic was raging. How to quickly screen people in and out, effectively protect and isolate medical staff, disinfect and distribute emergency supplies, and provide efficient treatment for ICU patients became the key to the successful implementation of epidemic prevention and control in the medical system. 5G wireless communication network has the advantages of full-network, stability, high speed, and low latency, which helps hospital treatment units to quickly combine and switch when the epidemic breaks out, providing important support for the effective implementation of epidemic prevention and control and blocking infection.

Sudden outbreaks require rapid response capabilities

my country's cities are densely populated, with high-speed railways and highways extending in all directions and frequent personnel movement, which provides conditions for the spread of infectious diseases. Due to the uncertainty and sporadic nature of infectious disease outbreaks, hospitals across the country generally lack sufficient prevention and control facilities. In addition, high-speed transmission and accurate analysis of medical data within the hospital, as well as data transmission and sharing between cross-regional medical institutions, are critical to effectively prevent and control the epidemic and block infection. However, the network conditions of hospitals previously generally had problems such as limited data transmission volume, poor security, and weak real-time performance, which made it difficult to meet the needs of scenarios such as remote precision medicine and medical big data analysis, and it was even more difficult to effectively assist in prevention, control and treatment when responding to the epidemic.

In the face of sudden infectious disease epidemics, hospitals face the following three problems in the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. First, how can existing ward facilities be quickly converted into isolation wards for COVID-19 cases? Second, how can the body temperature of patients coming to the hospital for treatment be quickly screened? Third, on the basis of ensuring medical safety, how can the number of medical staff entering the isolation ward be reduced, the risk of infection be reduced, and the consumption of medical supplies be reduced? The construction of 5G networks is being carried out continuously, and it can be quickly applied in medical institutions at all levels across the country, playing an effective prevention and control role, alleviating the current situation of tight human resources and heavy workload in hospitals, and the market prospects are broad.

Analysis of 5G-assisted epidemic prevention and control solutions

In the face of sudden infectious diseases such as COVID-19, hospitals can easily become channels for the spread of the virus during the response process, and medical staff are at high risk of occupational exposure and hospital infection. Hospitals must not only ensure the effectiveness of epidemic screening and treatment, but also effectively protect medical staff. They need to develop an effective comprehensive epidemic prevention command and control system to achieve efficient screening, monitoring, consultation, and visitation of patients. 5G communication technology has the characteristics of high speed, low latency, and large bandwidth, and can be well applied to real-time vital signs transmission, patient monitoring and communication, remote expert consultation, and family visits in the COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control scenario.

Referring to the national requirements and standards for the prevention and control of the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, the functional modules of the comprehensive information platform for the treatment of new coronavirus pneumonia hospitals are determined to consist of three parts: the command and monitoring center, the fever patient screening platform, and the in-hospital isolation treatment unit. Four information terminals are established to support the above three functions, namely the fever clinic screening terminal, the isolation ward/ICU mobile rounds terminal, the expert remote consultation terminal and the command and monitoring center terminal, to achieve fever patient screening and consultation, daily rounds and consultation in isolation wards, and reduce the risk of cross infection, as shown in Figure 1.

In Hangzhou, Hangzhou Mobile, in collaboration with relevant medical institutions, has successfully built a large-scale social activity medical emergency support system and a pre-hospital and in-hospital emergency medical service platform combining 5G communication technology. On this basis, it has further carried out research on a comprehensive information platform for hospital treatment of COVID-19 combining 5G technology.

The platform information system uses javascript for software development, the front-end development uses the VUE framework, and the back-end uses node+SQLserver technology. The command center terminal uses a web page and runs on the Windows 10 operating system. The isolation ward and ICU terminals, fever clinic terminals, and expert remote consultation terminals use APPs and tablet computers with an Android 9.0 operating system. In addition, smart devices are configured for auxiliary functions in the entire prevention and control scenario to minimize the number of personnel and reduce the chance of contact between personnel.

The system consists of three modules: a command and monitoring center, a fever patient screening platform, and an in-hospital isolation treatment unit. The spatial distribution of each unit is as follows: infrared temperature measurement and environmental cleaning robots are installed in the emergency and outpatient halls of the hospital, isolation and observation wards for suspected cases of COVID-19 are set up in the wards, and a 5G remote monitoring center is set up. Medicine delivery robots are deployed in the emergency and ICU wards.

Command and Monitoring Center

Through web pages, data from multiple sources and in various forms can be integrated, transmitted and displayed, such as audio and video and VR panoramas of real-time diagnosis and treatment in fever clinics, isolation wards and isolation ICUs. Combined with the hospital's electronic medical record system, basic patient information and medical records can be displayed to fully understand the patient's condition. At the same time, remote expert consultations can also be connected.

Screening of patients with fever

Infrared screening can be performed on patients with fever. The temperature of people entering the emergency room is checked at the entrance. Artificial intelligence-based image recognition technology and infrared thermal imaging technology are introduced to improve the efficiency, accuracy and safety of temperature measurement. Once a patient with elevated body temperature is found, the information can be uploaded to the command center in real time for early warning.

During the epidemic, health codes have become an important means of screening people in crowded areas such as hospitals, squares, and transportation hubs. As a high-risk area, hospitals can quickly classify and screen people by identifying "health codes" at the entrance. The "health code" is based on official data, quickly calculates the individual's health risk level, automatically generates a corresponding QR code, and can be identified by a dedicated 5G reader terminal as green, yellow, or red.

The application of health codes can, to a certain extent, screen and identify people who may come from epidemic-sensitive areas. As 5G mobile phones are becoming more popular in Hangzhou and 5G network construction is becoming more mature, the retrieval and reading of health codes based on 5G are more than two or three times faster than ordinary 4G mobile phones, greatly improving the reading efficiency of people in queues.

In-hospital isolation treatment unit

The 5G video ward rounds system includes AR glasses worn by doctors, a high-definition remote video interactive system, and a 5G panoramic VR real-time display system. It uses the high-speed, large-connection, and low-latency characteristics of the 5G network to achieve instant sharing of the above-mentioned multiple text and image information and enhance the "on-site realism". Panoramic cameras are installed in isolation wards and ICUs (as shown in Figure 2). Experts wear VR glasses in the monitoring center to check the conditions of patients in the wards and guide medical staff in the isolation wards to treat patients.

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Due to strict infection control requirements during the treatment of infectious diseases, family members of patients cannot enter the isolation ward for visit. The 5G+VR remote visitation system allows family members to feel as if they are next to the patient. Family members wearing VR glasses outside the ward can see the patient's real-time condition. At the same time, patients can also communicate with their family members in real time, effectively alleviating the tension and anxiety of patients and their families.

Intelligent robots can take on the tasks of delivering medicines and specimens and performing cleaning and disinfection, reduce the flow and contact of personnel within medical units, and conduct timely cleaning and disinfection of medical facilities to reduce the risk of nosocomial infections.

The robot uses lidar navigation and can use 5G+infrared, radar, etc. to independently plan routes and take elevators. According to instructions, it automatically enters the isolation ward for disinfection and delivery of medicines. The robot can also regularly remind medical staff to provide medicines for patients and automatically disinfect.

summary

This system can initially meet the initial needs of in-hospital monitoring and treatment of COVID-19, and realize the functions of rapid information transmission, daily medical rounds, and expert remote consultation during the process of intelligent initial screening of the population - fever clinic screening - in-hospital isolation treatment - intensive care, so as to achieve the purpose of blocking the spread of the epidemic at an early stage and reducing the risk of infection for medical staff in the hospital.

In summary, the 5G smart epidemic prevention series of products will be quickly replicated and promoted in large hospitals, medical alliances and other units, and form a medical linkage between multiple hospitals in different regions, providing more efficient and intelligent emergency and ICU comprehensive services for more patients. High-definition video interaction and VR immersive real-time panoramic experience based on 5G network can enrich medical teaching videos, improve the teaching level and teaching strength of hospitals, and at the same time will drive the rise of industries such as medical alliances and family medical care. Intelligent, micro-remote inspection equipment and physical condition monitoring equipment based on 5G networks will accelerate development. The 5G remote command system has an extensible architecture that can access the diagnosis and treatment information of patients from various equipment in the hospital to achieve mobile diagnosis and treatment. It can access the hospital HIS system and realize the cooperation of C-end development clients for flexible and unified management. VR immersive real-time panoramic experience can be put into scenarios such as remote surgery assistance and ICU intensive care.

In addition to remote examination applications, remote diagnosis and treatment of patients, remote surgical assistance, and ICU comprehensive management will also have new development opportunities. 5G can tap the potential of high-quality medical resources, greatly solve the problem of shortage of high-quality medical resources, break the time and space limitations of high-quality medical resources, and improve the level of inclusive medical and health services.