Vertical: Healthcare
Application: Enhanced coverage and connectivity
Ecosystem: T-Mobile US, Pixel Heath, Ingram Micro
Private Network: Hybrid 5G
Boston Children’s Hospital and T-Mobile have joined forces to introduce the inaugural hybrid 5G network within a healthcare system. This collaboration will facilitate the seamless transition of smart devices between Boston Children’s Hospital and remote environments, such as patients’ homes, where healthcare delivery is increasingly seen. The project is set to become operational in the early part of the coming year, providing connectivity to tens of thousands of devices right from the outset. What sets the Boston Children’s project apart is its innovative hybrid model, ensuring that devices maintain connectivity whether they are within or outside the hospital premises.
“More and more patients, especially with the pandemic, want to be able to do things virtually, they want care as close to home as possible,” she added. “And we as a healthcare provider have to make sure we have those things available to them,” said Heather Nelson, senior vice president and CIO of Boston Children’s.
The hybrid 5G network enhances the handling of electronic medical records and seamlessly interconnect a multitude of devices. It provides low-latency and high-bandwidth connectivity, crucial for efficiently harnessing the significant increase in healthcare data. Other potential applications of this hybrid network encompass location-based tracking of critical medical devices and the integration of AI into clinician workflows. Additionally, this partnership marks T-Mobile’s inaugural venture with a hospital or healthcare system.
“This really is truly the first time in a nation that a hospital will now be able to say wherever a doctor, a nurse, any clinician is, the procedures that they could do with all the applications follow them, and they do so in a way that’s absolutely predictable and absolutely performant in what they expect,” said Mike Feld, founder and CEO of health IT consultant Pixel Health
Healthcare facilities are large users of private mobile networks. Other examples include:
