China's Xiamen to build 5G-powered telemedicine platform for eye diseases

XIAMEN -- Xiamen, a coastal city in East China's Fujian province, will build a 5G-based telemedicine platform for eye diseases, as part of its efforts to promote smart medicine and health.

Approved by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the project is one of the "5G plus medical and health" application pilot projects in the country.

The platform will be established by a 5G-powered eye hospital, which was jointly set up by the Xiamen Eye Center of Xiamen University, the Xiamen branch of China Telecom, and the tech giant Huawei.

Based on 5G technologies, the telemedicine platform will encompass real-time medical videos and images, thus allowing doctors to conduct remote consultation, AI screening of eye diseases, and other diagnosis and treatment measures, said Li Xiaoxin, head of the Xiamen Eye Center of Xiamen University.

Medical professionals believe that the implementation of 5G-based telemedicine will effectively optimize regional medical resource allocation, and improve the timeliness of monitoring, diagnosis, and treatment of eye diseases.

Since China kicked off the commercialization of 5G services in 2019, 5G technology has been embedded in intelligently connected hospitals, factories, ports, driverless cars, and various aspects of people's lives.

Xiamen had built around 11,000 5G base stations by May, and it strives to bring the total number to 20,000 by the end of this year, statistics from the municipal bureau of industry and information technology showed.