Apollo Hospitals, Airtel, Amazon conduct colonoscopy trial using 5G, AI

Healthcare chain Apollo Hospitals, in partnership with telecom operator Bharti Airtel and cloud platform Amazon Web Services (AWS), on Thursday, conducted a trial colonoscopy polyp detection procedure that offered real-time image processing using Airtel’s 5G network, coupled with artificial intelligence (AI)-based high performance computing. Using new technologies in this process, the companies said in a joint statement, can reduce the overall time required to conduct the medical procedure, and also increase the efficiency and accuracy of the medical results drawn from it.

The results, derived by the AI computing platform by using data relayed in real-time and with minimal latency on the closed 5G network, can potentially improve the ability for physicians to detect signs of colon cancer in advance.

Hyderabad-based remote healthcare services firm HealthNet Global, and US-based tech solutions firm Avesha, also participated in the trial procedure.

Ajit Chitkara, chief executive of Airtel Business, said in a statement that low latency 5G networks can “transform” the healthcare sector, and make for one of the “most promising” use cases of the latest generation of connectivity.

Latency in a 5G network refers to the amount of time taken for a unit of data to be transferred from one place to another. A low latency network is what is referred to as a “fast” network, and enables use cases such as real-time transfer and usage of data collected at source. It is also one of the biggest benefits of 5G, which can facilitate use cases such as real-time analytics from factories to detect anomalies in a production line, among others.

To be sure, this is not the first time that 5G and AI have been used in India’s healthcare sector. Last month, on November 28, the Karnataka state government’s healthcare department, in partnership with non-profit eGovernments Foundation and tech platform Google Cloud, unveiled ‘10BedICU’ in Mysuru. The platform will set-up infratructure to offer remote intensive care unit (ICU) healthcare services across 41 state-run hospitals in Karnataka.

Apollo Hospitals also announced in April this year that it conducted India's first robot-assisted heart surgery, completing a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) at its Chennai hospital.

In May, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (Aiims), Jodhpur partnered with Microsoft to set-up a mixed reality centre of excellence (CoE) to enable remote healthcare solutions to remote district healthcare centres using 5G and AI.