The 5G TECH 2021 conference, themed “Digital Economy Recovery through 5G”, was held at the JW Marriott Hotel Kuala Lumpur from Nov 30-Dec 2.
CT Events Asia organised the hybrid event to explore 5G strategies across various industries such as technology, transportation, healthcare, energy, utility, etc.
The conference featured delegates and speakers comprising leading strategy and innovation leaders, government decision-makers, chief technology officers, C-level industry leaders, Internet of Things (IoT) related industry leaders, researchers interested in digital transformation and public sector representatives.
The panel discussions and presentations highlighted how Malaysian industries could harness 5G, the ultra-fast connectivity to better serve their customers, offer new products and services, reduce costs, and reinvent the business model.
With regards to healthcare, Frost & Sullivan ICT Associate Director Quah Mei Lee shared: “From my research across the Asia-Pacific, I find that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that 5G can support healthcare in a few ways.
“The first is in the increased use of robotics, which will help reduce close contacts.
“Second is in spreading the growth of telehealth, which has not only expanded the healthcare system coverage from urban to rural areas but also has increased the customer experience within healthcare with better management of patients.
“Finally, it has also helped in processing a massive amount of data within hospitals. It can also allow parallel access of information by the public and the hospital staff to ensure data security and privacy.”
She noted that the challenges of adopting 5G in healthcare are not limited to implementing technology but also retraining and upscaling staff and streamlining processes to achieve better experience within the healthcare industry comparable to the existing system, which is wi-fi and 4G powered.
UEM Edgenta Chief Digital Officer Chua Yong Howe said: “In the future, we are looking at IoT, wearable and ingestible sensors and so forth. It will transform the healthcare industry.
“It is going to be a convergence of healthcare and health tech to some extent, and healthcare service providers and tech players will have to start working together.
“Tech service providers will have to learn a fair bit more about how healthcare will be looking at 5G technology.
“Meanwhile, healthcare professionals will have to understand how 5G will revolutionise the healthcare industry in the future and potentially the healthcare business model and the whole ecosystem.”
The event also featured several exhibitors, including Mavenir, a software company with a 100 per cent cloud-native mobile platform and Pudu Robotics, a tech-focused enterprise offering smart robot delivery solutions to various clients globally. — The Health
