Emergency Telemedicine Mobile Ultrasounds Using a 5G-Enabled Application: Development and Usability Study
BackgroundDigitalization affects almost every aspect of modern daily life, including a growing number of health care services along with telemedicine applications. Fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication technology has the potential to meet the requirements for this digita...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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JMIR Publications
2022-05-01
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| Series: | JMIR Formative Research |
| Online Access: | https://formative.jmir.org/2022/5/e36824 |
| _version_ | 1797735062433693696 |
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| author | Maximilian Berlet Thomas Vogel Mohamed Gharba Joseph Eichinger Egon Schulz Helmut Friess Dirk Wilhelm Daniel Ostler Michael Kranzfelder |
| author_facet | Maximilian Berlet Thomas Vogel Mohamed Gharba Joseph Eichinger Egon Schulz Helmut Friess Dirk Wilhelm Daniel Ostler Michael Kranzfelder |
| author_sort | Maximilian Berlet |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
BackgroundDigitalization affects almost every aspect of modern daily life, including a growing number of health care services along with telemedicine applications. Fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication technology has the potential to meet the requirements for this digitalized future with high bandwidths (10 GB/s), low latency (<1 ms), and high quality of service, enabling wireless real-time data transmission in telemedical emergency health care applications.
ObjectiveThe aim of this study is the development and clinical evaluation of a 5G usability test framework enabling preclinical diagnostics with mobile ultrasound using 5G network technology.
MethodsA bidirectional audio-video data transmission between the ambulance car and hospital was established, combining both 5G-radio and -core network parts. Besides technical performance evaluations, a medical assessment of transferred ultrasound image quality and transmission latency was examined.
ResultsTelemedical and clinical application properties of the ultrasound probe were rated 1 (very good) to 2 (good; on a 6 -point Likert scale rated by 20 survey participants). The 5G field test revealed an average end-to-end round trip latency of 10 milliseconds. The measured average throughput for the ultrasound image traffic was 4 Mbps and for the video stream 12 Mbps. Traffic saturation revealed a lower video quality and a slower video stream. Without core slicing, the throughput for the video application was reduced to 8 Mbps. The deployment of core network slicing facilitated quality and latency recovery.
ConclusionsBidirectional data transmission between ambulance car and remote hospital site was successfully established through the 5G network, facilitating sending/receiving data and measurements from both applications (ultrasound unit and video streaming). Core slicing was implemented for a better user experience. Clinical evaluation of the telemedical transmission and applicability of the ultrasound probe was consistently positive. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T12:52:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8446ec25fb614d2583114fc845eca38e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2561-326X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T12:52:37Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | JMIR Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | JMIR Formative Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-8446ec25fb614d2583114fc845eca38e2023-08-28T21:51:14ZengJMIR PublicationsJMIR Formative Research2561-326X2022-05-0165e3682410.2196/36824Emergency Telemedicine Mobile Ultrasounds Using a 5G-Enabled Application: Development and Usability StudyMaximilian Berlethttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4652-0904Thomas Vogelhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6389-9090Mohamed Gharbahttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7045-7896Joseph Eichingerhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2422-5020Egon Schulzhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2208-8336Helmut Friesshttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6029-5857Dirk Wilhelmhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2972-9802Daniel Ostlerhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2949-7279Michael Kranzfelderhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6474-0759 BackgroundDigitalization affects almost every aspect of modern daily life, including a growing number of health care services along with telemedicine applications. Fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication technology has the potential to meet the requirements for this digitalized future with high bandwidths (10 GB/s), low latency (<1 ms), and high quality of service, enabling wireless real-time data transmission in telemedical emergency health care applications. ObjectiveThe aim of this study is the development and clinical evaluation of a 5G usability test framework enabling preclinical diagnostics with mobile ultrasound using 5G network technology. MethodsA bidirectional audio-video data transmission between the ambulance car and hospital was established, combining both 5G-radio and -core network parts. Besides technical performance evaluations, a medical assessment of transferred ultrasound image quality and transmission latency was examined. ResultsTelemedical and clinical application properties of the ultrasound probe were rated 1 (very good) to 2 (good; on a 6 -point Likert scale rated by 20 survey participants). The 5G field test revealed an average end-to-end round trip latency of 10 milliseconds. The measured average throughput for the ultrasound image traffic was 4 Mbps and for the video stream 12 Mbps. Traffic saturation revealed a lower video quality and a slower video stream. Without core slicing, the throughput for the video application was reduced to 8 Mbps. The deployment of core network slicing facilitated quality and latency recovery. ConclusionsBidirectional data transmission between ambulance car and remote hospital site was successfully established through the 5G network, facilitating sending/receiving data and measurements from both applications (ultrasound unit and video streaming). Core slicing was implemented for a better user experience. Clinical evaluation of the telemedical transmission and applicability of the ultrasound probe was consistently positive.https://formative.jmir.org/2022/5/e36824 |
| spellingShingle | Maximilian Berlet Thomas Vogel Mohamed Gharba Joseph Eichinger Egon Schulz Helmut Friess Dirk Wilhelm Daniel Ostler Michael Kranzfelder Emergency Telemedicine Mobile Ultrasounds Using a 5G-Enabled Application: Development and Usability Study JMIR Formative Research |
| title | Emergency Telemedicine Mobile Ultrasounds Using a 5G-Enabled Application: Development and Usability Study |
| title_full | Emergency Telemedicine Mobile Ultrasounds Using a 5G-Enabled Application: Development and Usability Study |
| title_fullStr | Emergency Telemedicine Mobile Ultrasounds Using a 5G-Enabled Application: Development and Usability Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Emergency Telemedicine Mobile Ultrasounds Using a 5G-Enabled Application: Development and Usability Study |
| title_short | Emergency Telemedicine Mobile Ultrasounds Using a 5G-Enabled Application: Development and Usability Study |
| title_sort | emergency telemedicine mobile ultrasounds using a 5g enabled application development and usability study |
| url | https://formative.jmir.org/2022/5/e36824 |
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