Airtel, Apollo Hospitals, Cisco join hands to create 5G connected ambulance

Bharti Airtel announced on Thursday a collaboration with Apollo Hospitals and Cisco to develop 5G connected ambulances. 
 
The demonstration took place in Bengaluru using the Department of Telecom’s 5G experimental spectrum, which was allotted to Airtel. 
 
“5G is a transformative technology,” said Ajay Chitkara, Director & CEO, Airtel Business. “This is yet another demonstration by Airtel of how collaborations can unlock the potential of digital platforms for the good of humanity.” 
 
In a joint statement, the companies said the 5G connected ambulance is equipped with medical equipment, patient monitoring applications that transmit patient health data to the hospital in real-time, as well as onboard cameras, camera-based and Bodycams for paramedic staff – all connected to the Airtel 5G network. 
 
Over the high-speed, low-latency 5G network, the hospital’s command centre will get the geolocation of every ambulance, ensuring that the nearest ambulance reaches the crucial patient in time to save the patient’s golden hour.

5G connected ambulance

“The importance of the ‘golden hour’ is well understood. In an emergency, it can be the difference between life and death for extremely unwell or traumatized individuals. The facilities in an ambulance and the distance from the hospital have an impact on the golden hour. These findings inspired us to work with Airtel on the 5G connected ambulance initiative and to employ 5G to take advantage of the lag-free, interruption-free connectivity it offers “Sangita Reddy, Apollo Hospitals Group’s Joint Managing Director, stated. 
 
The firms hope that paramedics in ambulances will be able to utilize the cameras to work with ER doctors at the hospital who are equipped with AV/VR technology to do simple treatments.
 
“Through our Country Digitization Acceleration programme, Cisco‘s partnership with Airtel is a step toward bringing the great possibilities of 5G to life by boosting the performance of critical-care applications,” said Anand Bhaskar, Managing Director, Cisco India & SAARC. 

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