Chinese Doctor Used 5G To Perform World's 1st Remote Brain Surgery On A Patient 3,000 Km Away

As we gradually move towards adopting 5G, it's not about just letting you access Instagram faster or browse for access more dank memes.

The new Internet standard could improve everything from IoT to smart cars, and it was just demonstrated by a doctor.

Images courtesy: People's Daily China

A surgeon in China just used 5G to perform the world's first remote brain surgery. He used camera systems and remotely operated equipment to perform surgery on a patient's brain from over 3,000 km away.

Dr Ling Zhipei was performing the surgery from Sanya City in Hainan, while his patient was in Beijing. The procedure involved giving the patient, who has Parkinson's a deep brain stimulation (DBS). All told, the operation lasted three hours, according to local media.

"I take turns working in Beijing and Hainan, and the operation took place during my Hainan rotation," Dr Zhipei said. "A patient with Parkinson's in Beijing needed surgery and couldn't fly to Hainan. The 5G network has solved problems like video lag and remote control delay experienced under the 4G network, ensuring a nearly real-time operation. And you barely feel that the patient is 3,000 kilometers away."

The patient has recovered from the surgery and is reportedly "feeling good".

Just a few weeks ago was when the first ever remote surgery on a human was carried out over 5G, at a demonstration during MWC 2019. There Dr Antonio de Lacy was guiding a team of doctors in an operation theatre 5 km away. In Dr Zhipei's case however, he was manipulating the instruments himself, which makes it all the more impressive. Not to mention how much more complex brain surgery is.

It's another demonstration of how much 5G can benefit other industries. In medicine, it could help bring top-level healthcare to people in remote areas, or to critical patients that can't be shifted. 5G has much less latency than 4G, making it not only easier to keep pace with remotely manipulated instruments, but also a faster process in general. Using it, doctors at the best of hospitals can attend to patients in need hundreds of miles away, without having to uproot themselves.

We're already able to consult doctors online through websites and apps. But with the proper infrastructure and adoption of 5G, we could be getting treated online in a few years too.