BARCELONA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A pilot project for an operating theater which will make it possible to provide remote assistance in real time was presented on Wednesday by the Mobile World Capital Barcelona and the Barcelona Hospital Clinic.
The presentation was made at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) which is currently being held in the northeast Spanish city and set to open until March 1.
The project uses 5G technology providing superfast internet speeds and high levels of data transfer, to allow a specialized surgeon to guide another surgeon in an operation without the specialist having to be physically present in the procedure.
The operating theater, known as Optimus, is located in the Hospital Clinic and is an integrated, robotic and digital theater which uses Big Data and smart lighting.
Everything that happens in the theater is recorded from various different angles in order to send real time information to the specialist with the use of 5G technology reducing latency (the time delay) from the current 0.27 to 0.01 seconds; something that could literally mean the difference between life or death.
The use of 5G also allows high definition images to be sent from the operating theater, making it easier for specialists on the outside to make their decisions.
The first phase of testing will be between the operating theater in the Hospital Clinic and other areas of the hospital, but in the second phase this will be extended to various hospitals in Barcelona, while the final stage of the tests will see communication between the hospital and a moving vehicle, such as an ambulance.
According to data given by the medical journal The Lancet, currently around 143 million procedures do not take place due to lack of knowledge and instant real time access to specialists could change this to save countless lives.