OSLO, March 2 ― The idea of having a hospital equipped with an integrated 5G network and its emerging technologies is something Malaysia could leverage on to enhance patient treatment and teaching capabilities, said Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.

The minister, yesterday, visited Norwegian Radium Hospital, here, where the country's telecommunication giant Telenor Group showcased a dedicated 5G indoor solution and how, together with the hospital, they are innovating patient treatment and developing health solutions for increased efficiency.

Fahmi said telecommunication service providers could engage in a private-public partnership where they are prepared to work together with hospitals to offer new services or to come up with new solutions.

"The kind of solutions they have here is to bring the hospital to the patients, not necessarily to take patients to the hospital, and the idea of having two networks ― the conventional IP-based network and 4G/5G base network.

"There is a lot of thinking that went into this and I am very encouraged to see this kind of 5G use case being implemented here,” he told Bernama after the visit, here.

The 5G dedicated network among other things unleashes new opportunities like the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions while providing a better overview of inpatients as well as faster access to test results for practitioners.

It also opens the opportunity for future healthcare solutions, such as remote assisted surgery, in teaching hospitals to enhance the learning experience and capabilities of medical practitioners.

Fahmi said he would bring up the matter to the Ministry of Higher Education and Ministry of Health to see what could be done.

Meanwhile, commenting on his working visit to Norway, Fahmi said that further engagement is needed with partners across the world, such as with Telenor, to learn better ways of using new and emerging technologies.

"Overall, the visit here (Oslo) has been very eye-opening because many of the solutions that we see here are either on the verge of being implemented or already implemented.

"I also had the opportunity to learn more about Telenor's operations and also the challenges...the kind of opportunities that are presented. As a nation we must be open to these opportunities,” he said.

Meanwhile, Telenor senior vice president and deputy head of Asia, Håkon Bruaset Kjøl believes that the significance of 5G and the opportunities the technology brings is equally as important as developing strong public-private partnerships.f.

"This shows that 5G can be equally important for the public sector. The use cases we see today, for the hospital, also provide cost reduction and increased security around the data it gathers to treat its patients better,” he said.

Håkon also noted that the partnership that needs to be forged between the government and private industry as well as other players in the ecosystem is important.

This includes having open dialogue to ensure that we get the right regulations in place, he added.

"Telenor is happy to continue the dialogue initiated during the minister's visit and share more of its solutions to 5G network implementation in advanced markets in the future, including through CelcomDigi Bhd,” he added. ― Bernama