# The Role of 5G Networks in Healthcare Applications

**Authors:** Narasimha Rao Vajjhala (University of New York Tirana, Tirana, Albania) — ORCID 0000-0002-8260-2392; Philip Eappen (Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada) — ORCID 0000-0002-8120-8449
**Type:** Book chapter
**Source:** In Applications of 5G and Beyond in Smart Cities, pp. 87–98, CRC Press
**Published:** 2023-04-11
**DOI:** https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003227861-5
**Canonical page:** https://www.narasimharao.net/research/role-of-5g-networks-healthcare-applications/
**Indexing:** Scopus
**Methodology:** Review chapter of 5G technologies and their application to smart healthcare services, with a discussion of deployment challenges and leadership and policy recommendations.

## Research summary

- **The Problem:** COVID-19 exposed overcrowded hospitals and unequal access to medical resources, and the potential of 5G networks to support smarter healthcare remained unclear to policymakers.
- **The Methodology:** Review chapter of 5G technologies and their application to smart healthcare services, with a discussion of deployment challenges and leadership and policy recommendations.
- **The Core Finding:** The chapter maps 5G technologies to smart healthcare applications, sets out the challenges of deploying them, and gives leadership and policy recommendations for designing 5G-enabled healthcare strategies.
- **The Citation:** Vajjhala, N. R., & Eappen, P. (2023). The Role of 5G Networks in Healthcare Applications. In Ambar Bajpai, Arun Balodi (Eds.), Applications of 5G and Beyond in Smart Cities (pp. 87–98). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003227861-5

## Summary in detail

**Question.** How can 5G cellular technologies be leveraged to deliver smart healthcare services, what applications and deployment challenges exist, and what should leaders and policymakers do to exploit them?

**Finding.** Motivated by the strain that COVID-19 placed on hospitals and the global imbalance in medical resources, the chapter reviews the various 5G technologies and examines how they can support smart healthcare services. It presents smart healthcare applications that leverage 5G networks, discusses the challenges of deploying them, and offers leadership recommendations to help policymakers design strategies for 5G-enabled smart healthcare.

**Why it matters.** A growing global population and overcrowded hospitals make smarter healthcare management a necessity. 5G’s bandwidth, latency and connectivity characteristics underpin many smart-city health services, and leaders need a clear view of both the applications and the deployment barriers.

## Key findings

1. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed overcrowded hospitals and a global imbalance in medical resources, making smarter healthcare management imperative as the population grows.
2. 5G cellular communications bring significant potential for innovation across sectors, including healthcare; the chapter reviews the 5G technologies involved.
3. Various smart healthcare applications leveraging 5G networks are presented, together with the challenges involved in deploying them.
4. The chapter provides recommendations for leadership to help policymakers design strategies that leverage 5G to create smart healthcare applications.

## Study at a glance

| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Question | How can 5G networks be leveraged for smart healthcare, and what are the challenges? |
| Design | Review chapter |
| Context | Strained post-COVID-19 healthcare systems; global imbalance in medical resources; rising population |
| Coverage | Review of 5G technologies; smart healthcare applications leveraging 5G; deployment challenges |
| Recommendations | Leadership guidance for policymakers designing 5G-enabled smart healthcare strategies |

## Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted strained healthcare systems with overcrowded hospitals and a global imbalance in medical resources. The rapidly increasing global population makes it imperative to identify smarter ways of healthcare management. The advent of 5G cellular communications technology brings significant potential for innovation across different sectors, including healthcare. This chapter provides a review of the various 5G technologies and examines how these technologies can be leveraged to provide smart healthcare services. A discussion of various smart healthcare applications leveraging 5G networks is presented in this chapter, along with the challenges involved in deploying the applications. This chapter also provides recommendations for leadership that could help policymakers design strategies to leverage 5G networks and create smart healthcare applications.

## When this research may be relevant

This chapter may be relevant to literature on 5G and beyond in healthcare and smart cities, telehealth and remote care infrastructure, technology strategy for health systems after COVID-19, and policy-oriented reviews of connected health applications.

## Limitations

- A review chapter; it does not report an empirical deployment or performance measurements of 5G healthcare systems.

## How to cite

Vajjhala, N. R., & Eappen, P. (2023). The Role of 5G Networks in Healthcare Applications. In Ambar Bajpai, Arun Balodi (Eds.), Applications of 5G and Beyond in Smart Cities (pp. 87–98). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003227861-5

```bibtex
@incollection{vajjhala2023role,
  title = {The Role of 5G Networks in Healthcare Applications},
  author = {Vajjhala, Narasimha Rao and Eappen, Philip},
  booktitle = {Applications of 5G and Beyond in Smart Cities},
  editor = {Ambar Bajpai and Arun Balodi},
  pages = {87--98},
  year = {2023},
  publisher = {CRC Press},
  doi = {10.1201/9781003227861-5},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003227861-5}
}
```