The VA Palo Alto Health Care System has deployed a full-spectrum private 5G network in partnership with Verizon Business.
In 2020, the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and Verizon Business announced that VA Palo Alto Health Care System would be the VA’s first 5G-enabled healthcare facility.
The public-private partnership, called Project Convergence, is led by VA’s National Center for Collaborative Health Care Innovation. Located in Silicon Valley, the NCCHI collaborates broadly with industry partners, other government agencies, academia, and throughout VA. It is working to identify and develop clinical uses for technology that transforms veteran care with 5G capabilities.
The new network enables advanced clinical capabilities, such as augmented reality-assisted presurgical guidance with virtual 3D X-ray vision with the incorporation of CT and MRI scans; virtual reality-assisted medical learning that clinicians can interact with and walk into 3D models of human organs; holographic teleportation enhancing clinical interactions at a distance; and digital twins for safety and security.
This newest deployment of Verizon private 5G and private 5G MEC infrastructure was preceded by commercial in-building 5G systems spanning the entire facility. These in-building systems are integrated with Verizon 5G rooftop macro sites at VA Palo Alto that provide 5G services to the exterior of the campus.
Combined, these 5G systems use all three 5G frequency bands servicing the VA Palo Alto campus.
“Our goal is to provide the best and most advanced healthcare for our veterans,” said Thomas Osborne, M.D., director of the NCCHI and executive director for the VA Convergence Center at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, in a statement. “The capabilities and solutions we are deploying are designed to dramatically improve patient outcomes, and in doing so will revolutionize care for our veterans and around the world. 5G solutions enhance our current capabilities while giving us new opportunities to be forward-thinking with pioneering tools.”
Verizon said the 5G technology deployed will deliver exponentially greater bandwidth, providing VA Palo Alto with the ability to unlock the potential of complex medical data. The system’s cloud-based servers on the edge, in combination with advanced analytics such as AI-powered clinical decision support tools can support physicians to make real-time, data-informed decisions about the best course of care.
“There is a lot of unrealized potential in healthcare data,” Osborne added. “5G capabilities help us efficiently turn data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom, which in turn promotes optimal outcomes at the largest integrated healthcare system in the US.”
Last month, Verizon Public Sector announced a 9-year expansion of its partnership with the VA, worth $448.3 million, through which the network provider will supply mobile devices and mission-critical communications systems.
