Telia, Region Stockholm test 5G to improve health care

Last autumn, Telia and Region Stockholm agreed to collaborate to explore how advanced mobile 5G services could be used to improve patient safety and health-care communication.

To facilitate this collaboration, Telia completed the installation of a 5G test bed at an emergency hospital in the Stockholm region.

The collaboration between Telia and Region Stockholm is part of the “Location-independent mobile care solutions” project, in which several of Region Stockholm’s care units and its real estate company are currently testing innovative technical solutions on an advanced technical platform.

In addition to operation and development of the 5G test bed, Telia also contributes innovation project managers and technical expertise. One of the goals of the collaboration is to understand the technical requirements that health-care use cases impose on 5G networks and the systems and solutions that are connected to them.

Magnus Leonhardt, Head of Strategy and Innovation for Telia B2B in Sweden, says: “New technology creates opportunities for more accessible and qualitative care. At the same time, high patient safety is a prerequisite for the continued digital development of care. That, in turn, requires robust and secure communication solutions, which is exactly what 5G technology was developed for.”

The 5G test bed enables the testing of innovative new services that could benefit patients and health-care professionals, such as real-time video communication between an ambulance and an emergency room before the patient arrives at the hospital. By providing advanced real-time information about hospital premises and facilitating rapid communication, 5G could help to save lives in the event of an emergency.

Region Stockholm runs the Location-independent mobile care solutions project through a collaboration between the Research and Innovation department within the regional management office, Ambulancessjukvården i Storstockholm AB (AISAB), and Locum AB.

The project takes place in collaboration with other units within Region Stockholm, including Vårdbolaget Tiohundra, Karolinska University Hospital, the health and medical care administration and the Stockholm County health care area. External collaboration partners include Telia and Dedalus AB. The project team plans to provide a progress report during the first half of 2023.