Dr Antonio de Lacy, chief of the gastrointestinal surgery department, Hospital Clinic Barcelona, emphasised the importance of 5G and AI to help reduce errors during surgery. Talking about more technologically-fuelled advances in the health sector, he showed his support for the development of 5G and AI, including their increased adoption.
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He performed the world’s first remote 5G surgery at MWC2019, talked about the work done since accomplishing the milestone, and further demonstrated a new system that allows increased collaboration between hospitals and doctors worldwide.
Known as AIS Telesurgeon, the system can be plugged into operating theatres in hospitals worldwide. This allows for communication through 5G between surgeons by using videos and pictures.
Dr Lacey told the audience that this enables the creation of a global network which is important “as four eyes, or even ten eyes are better than two.” According to him, this helped reduce complications during health procedures which he called “one of the biggest pandemics.”
Talking about the future, Dr Lacey’s goal is to move towards a world where live surgery with the help of 5G was possible. He also encouraged discussions about the integration of AI and robotics into the surgical process.
Speaking on the keynote, Ana Maiques, CEO of Neuroelectrics, talked about technological advancements for the human brain. Referring to the company’s Enobio headpiece device, which is worn by users to track brain activity, further addressing a range of issues such as mental health and epilepsy, she stated that 5G was the key to it.
She further noted that numerous people suffered from depression during the pandemic. This posed an opportunity for Neuroeletrics to send its device and help patients that couldn’t be treated in hospitals.
“We believe the future of technology is going home, so it is going to change the way we deal with brain diseases,” she explained, adding 5G “is going to be key because we can stimulate millions of patients at home, but also when we stimulate the patients we can record their brain data.”
