Meet Ellen – A Healthcare Consumer in the Future of Health with 5G

By 2030, ubiquitous access to 5G networks, edge computing, and radical data interoperability will empower a consumer-centric and personalized health ecosystem. The concept of “patients” as merely recipients of care delivery will no longer exist. Instead, “healthcare consumers” will become increasingly prominent as the population shifts their mindset from receiving care to sustaining well-being.  

5G network advancements in areas such as ultra-highspeed connection, near real-time response times, and massive IoT connectivity have sparked rapid innovations in areas such as telemedicine, smart hospitals, personalized care, and more. Furthermore, interoperability is bringing together various types of data – claims, clinical, social determinants, longitudinal – in new ways. While 5G is not an unfamiliar concept to many, with much of its applications in development and pilot phases today, the timeline for broader use of these applications by the public is rapidly accelerating. Compared to other networks, 5G uniquely offers high speed connectivity and ability for devices to flow between wherever the consumer is located; while Wifi 6 offers coverage within individual homes or buildings, 5G enables the consumer to seamlessly transition between homes, hospitals, other buildings, transportation services, and even the outdoors.

By providing “always-on” high speed internet connections, by 2030, 5G will enable the consumer to have seamless access to personalized health and well-being technologies, paired with data access through interoperability, lending to an efficient and ubiquitous vision of the future of health that is accessible to all.

This blog post outlines the journey of Ellen, a new mother and healthcare consumer in 2030, as she experiences various healthcare settings enabled by 5G:

5G is a force-multiplier that enables the full potential of other emerging technologies, such as edge computing, AI, cloud, IoT and Big data analytics, to be unlocked. The merging of 5G with these technologies will allow healthcare consumers to make more informed and personalized health care choices through early detection, real-time monitoring, and interoperable healthcare data.

As healthcare and telecom industries prepare for 5G disruption, Deloitte is well-equipped to support your organization’s vision with regards to:

• Use case and architecture design and prioritization along with partner selection
• Network design that allows for future adaptations - minimizing upfront costs while focusing on ROI
• Business and operating models that drive adoption and realize benefits
• Value realization to continually optimize performance both technically and in the market
• Transformation and change management as new networks are deployed

Healthcare technology of the future will become part of normal daily life for consumers –so pervasive and efficient that what would seem like a crazy idea today won’t be so much as a second thought. 5G is here. Are you ready to reimagine healthcare?

Authors: Shilin Zhou, Katie Reis, Arti Desai, Jinlei Liu and Karla Feghali

We would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions to this post: Neal Batra, Bruce Green, Pedro Arboleda, Jack Fritz, Bill Murray, Bill Fera, Kenneth Abrams, Bill Laughlin, Glenn Snyder, Dale Robinson, Kristin Nordeen, Chiara Cerati, David Gilbert, Madhan Kumar Rangaswamy Varadhan, Ellen O'Dea