GE Healthcare launches its first ‘5G Innovation Lab’ in India

GE Healthcare has launched what it claims to be the first 5G Innovation Lab in India. 5G has the potential to disrupt the patient care continuum, transforming diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis due to massive bandwidth, high data speeds, low latency, and highly reliable connectivity. And the lab is aimed at transforming remote care, and foster collaboration with academia, industry and start-ups to co-create future-ready solutions. The lab is situated at the John F. Welch Technology Centre (JFWTC) Bengaluru, GE Healthcare’s largest R&D centre outside of the USA.

“The healthcare industry, driven by value-based patient care, is at a turning point that will put a greater emphasis on connectivity and accessibility. As the world is transforming digitally, it’s important for us to ensure we don’t miss out on lifesaving, critical information. India is an important market for us globally and it is indeed the right time to venture into 5G, which will open a realm of exciting opportunities, driving the next wave of growth in Healthcare,” said Jan Makela, President & CEO, Imaging at GE Healthcare.

According to GE, the lab houses state-of-the-art infrastructure, including a private 5G network for testing and development. It provides expertise as well as a platform for a collaborative ecosystem for academia, the healthcare industry, and start-ups, facilitating exploration and enabling validation and qualification of 5G-enabled Precision Healthcare use cases.

5G in healthcare was valued at an estimated $215 million in 2021 and projected to reach $3,667 million by 2026 as per research firm MarketsandMarkets’ report. 5G high-speed connectivity has the potential to advance Point-of-Care services by pushing the boundaries of tele-health, remote health monitoring/diagnosis, real-time remote image processing, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). 5G could act as a key catalyst for transforming the patient experience by enabling rapid collection and transmission of large data files and real-time, high-definition video, which can support quicker analytical insights and streamline clinical decision-making.

The company said that it is also using its clinical expertise and know-how to deliver integrated, and highly personalised care and advance precision health. At this 5G Innovation Lab, the company’s lead scientists and technologists will research and develop solutions for the most pressing healthcare issues, for India and the world.

“This lab will play a pivotal role in helping us build an ecosystem to explore 5G-enabled use cases and leapfrog into the next generation of MedTech,” added Girish Raghavan, Vice President, Engineering, GE Healthcare. PTI