Airtel, Apollo Hospitals, Cisco partner to create 5G connected ambulance

Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced its partnership with Apollo Hospitals and Cisco to create 5G connected ambulances.

The demonstration was conducted in Bengaluru over the 5G trial spectrum allotted to Airtel by the Department of Telecom.

“5G is a transformational technology, and this is yet another demonstration by Airtel as to how collaborations can unlock the potential of digital platforms for the good of humanity,” said Ajay Chitkara, Director & CEO, Airtel Business.

The 5G connected ambulance is equipped with medical equipment, patient monitoring applications that transmit the patient health data to the hospital in real-time along with onboard cameras, camera-based and Bodycams for paramedic staff – all connected to the Airtel 5G network, the companies said in a joint statement.

The high-speed, low latency 5G network will relay the geolocation of every ambulance to the hospital’s command center to ensure the nearest ambulance reaches the critical patient to save the patient’s golden hour.

“The criticality of the ‘golden hour’ is well known. It can mean the difference between life and death for seriously ill or trauma patients in an emergency. The golden hour is impacted by the facilities in an ambulance and the distance from the hospital. These insights propelled us to collaborate with Airtel on the 5G connected ambulance project and use 5G in order to utilise the disruption-free, lag-free connectivity it provides,” said Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Group.

The companies expect that the paramedics in ambulance can use the cameras to collaborate with the ER doctors at the hospital who are equipped with technologies like AV/VR to undertake basic procedures.

“Cisco’s partnership with Airtel, through our Country Digitization Acceleration program, is a step towards bringing the immense possibilities of 5G to life by improving the performance of critical-care applications,” said Anand Bhaskar, Managing Director, Service Provider Business, Cisco India & SAARC.

Shares of Bharti Airtel Limited was last trading in BSE at Rs. 753.55 as compared to the previous close of Rs. 756.20. The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 761.35 and intraday low of 746.25. Business Today