M-Health Solutions Using 5G Networks and M2M Communications: It Trends in Healthcare It Trends in Healthcare
M-Health Solutions Using 5G Networks and M2M Communications: It Trends in Healthcare It Trends in Healthcare
M-Health Solutions Using 5G Networks and M2M Communications: It Trends in Healthcare It Trends in Healthcare
M-Health Solutions
Using 5G Networks
and M2M
Communications
S
ince the 1950s, the scientific and indus- to the electronic health (e-health) field, while
trial communities have proposed using the integration of mobile computing, medical
electronic and computer technology in sensors, and portable devices in the health en-
healthcare. In recent decades, society vironment has enabled the subfield of mobile
has seen breakthroughs in technology that sig- health (m-health). Although there are similarities
nificantly change peoples’ behavior and needs between e-health and m-health, they also have
and are poised to revolutionize the healthcare some differences. Whereas e-health, in a gen-
field. These advancements have occurred mainly eral way, is using ICT for healthcare, m-health
due to the emergence and evolution of Internet adds to e-health a specific focus on exploiting
and mobile communications. Such technologies advances in mobile communications, ubiquitous
are being widely used to develop medical solu- computing, and wearable technologies.
tions that make patient information available In the past decade, mobile communication
anytime and anywhere. technology has achieved significant advancements
Computer technologies, modern equipment, in coverage, service usage, and transmission rates.
and ICT for healthcare solutions have given rise Today, mobile networks support more than 3.6
24 IT Pro May/June 2016 Published by the IEEE Computer Society 1520-9202/16/$33.00 © 2016 IEEE
billion users worldwide, with wireless coverage What Is 5G?
reaching more than 85 percent of the world’s pop- Essentially, 5G denotes the next generation of ex-
ulation,1 which is much more than the electricity isting 4G communication networks that can pro-
distribution system can currently reach. vide a huge step ahead as regards network speed,
Several wireless and mobile network tech- capacity, and scalability. The technology vision,
nologies have arisen to enable myriad services, capabilities, and standards for 5G are still under
including voice and data communications with extensive discussion and definition.
enhanced mobility features. An extensive dis- At the beginning of 2013, China’s govern-
cussion is currently under way involving the fifth ment established the International Mobile Tele-
generation of wireless networks. Unlike 3G or communication 2020 (5G) Promotion Group, or
even 4G, these networks offer interesting possi- IMT-2020 (5G), as a significant effort toward de-
bilities for meeting the unique requirements of veloping 5G research.4 In the same year, the 5G
m-health scenarios. Public-Private Partnership (5G PPP) was initiated
In the near future, billions of mobile devices in Europe.5 At the end of 2015, 5G PPP and IMT-
will be connected to the Internet2; this growth 2020 (5G) announced a memorandum of under-
will be faster than current technologies can sup- standing and are now working together on the
port. Furthermore, machine-to-machine (M2M) 5G vision, requirements, concepts, and techno-
and device-to-device (D2D) communication logical architecture.
technologies will be deployed on a large scale. In July 2015, the International Telecommuni-
Thus, 5G networks offer new possibilities for cation Union (ITU) defined its vision and road-
evolving m-health solutions that have a constant map for 5G mobile development and established
need for faster, more secure, and scalable mobile the term “IMT-2020” for it. The process is con-
networks with very low latency. tinuing in the ITU with the close collaboration
Here, we define 5G networks and look at glob- of industry and governments. As one relevant
al efforts to realize the vision and requirements result of this ongoing project, the ITU has de-
that would make them a reality. We also exam- fined some parameters that can be considered
ine future 5G standards and the advances that key c apabilities for 5G technology:6
m-health applications should be able to achieve.
• Peak data rates should reach 10 Gbps; 20 Gbps
M-Health peak data rates can be expected under certain
In a broad sense, m-health is the delivery of conditions and scenarios.
healthcare services through mobile devices, • Services will be supported that have very low
which are used to capture, analyze, store, and latency requirements (less than or equal to 1
transmit health information from multiple ms).
sources, including sensors and other biomedical • The network will enable high mobility (up to
acquisition systems. M-health offers an elegant 500 km/h).
solution to a problem commonly faced in the • It will support a high connection density en-
medical field: how to access the right informa- abling massive machine-type communication
tion where and when needed in highly dynamic (MTC) scenarios.
and distributed healthcare organizations. • The network will enable 100× more energy ef-
Mobile applications for health can address ficiency and 3× more spectrum efficiency.
different audiences, such as doctors, nurses, pa-
tients, and even healthy people.3 Solutions can According to the ITU, these capabilities are
be used to encourage, for example, a reduction targets for IMT-2020 research and investiga-
in cigarette consumption, adherence to weight tion and can be further revised. Furthermore,
loss diets and physical activity plans, or adher- the relevance of these capabilities can be dif-
ence to treatment plans aimed to control and ferent according to the use case or scenario
prevent heart disease. As a result, m-health so- studied.
lutions can decrease medical errors and improve Regarding the 5G architecture, the technol-
the efficiency and effectiveness of health servic- ogy will need to support legacy radio access tech-
es, thereby reducing operating costs. nologies (RATs) and fixed access, and provide an
computer.org/ITPro 25
IT Trends in Healthcare
computer.org/ITPro 27
IT Trends in Healthcare
B
important use cases related to a broad range of seg- y the end of 2020, hundreds of millions of
ments, including the healthcare field. The follow- devices will be working with healthcare-
ing healthcare use cases were considered:17 related M2M technology. To ensure com-
munication and interoperability among medical
• M2M healthcare gateway. This use case is devices for different purposes and with different
related to equipment that allows bidirectional
traffic characteristics, the 5G architecture will
communication between healthcare sensors (the have a central role in several m-health scenarios.
M2M device domain) and back-end servers (the To effectively disseminate m-health solutions so
m-health application domain). This use case re- that they become a reality, the 5G network and
sults in a list of requirements, such as equipment M2M technology should meet medical devices’
buffer capacity and quality-of-service policies. current and future needs. Here, we aimed to con-
• Secure remote patient care and monitoring. In this solidate the recent work relating to 5G, M2M, and
case, the person being monitored uses one or m-health technology as well as explore the poten-
more wearable or implantable sensors. Chronic tial that these technologies have to a ddress open
computer.org/ITPro 29