Verizon Deploys 5G Edge to Advance Care at VA Palo Alto Medical Center

What You Should Know:

• Verizon Business, in partnership with the VA Palo Alto Health Care System today announced the deployment of a full spectrum private 5G network.
• This announcement is a continuation of the broader partnership between the United States Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) and Verizon Business that started in 2020 with the announcement of VA Palo Alto Health Care System as VA’s first 5G-enabled healthcare facility.

Improving 5G Technology to Facilitate Physicians

The public-private partnership, Project Convergence, is led by VA’s National Center for Collaborative Health Care Innovation and works to identify and develop clinical uses for technology that transforms Veteran care with 5G capabilities.

The new network enables advanced clinical capabilities, such as AR-assisted presurgical guidance with virtual 3D X-ray vision with the incorporation of CT and MRI scans; VR-assisted medical learning which clinicians can interact with and walk into 3D models of human organs; holographic teleportation enhancing clinical interactions at a distance; and digital twin for cutting edge 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 utilize all three 5G frequency bands servicing the VA Palo Alto campus to deliver a next generation, campus-wide, full-spectrum, hybrid commercial and private 5G environment that will expand the 5G capabilities.

“Our goal is to provide the best and most advanced healthcare for our Veterans,” said Thomas Osborne, M.D., director of the Veterans Health Administration’s National Center for Collaborative Healthcare Innovation (NCCHI) and Executive Director for the VA Convergence Center (VC2) at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. “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.”

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.

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