Sanya City, Hainan Province, south China – March 16, 2019 (CCTV) – China on Saturday performed a brain pacemaker implantation surgery in a medical center in Beijing under the remote guidance and control of medical experts at a hospital in Sanya City, south China’s Hainan Province, through 5G technology.

With technology support by China Mobile and Huawei Company, Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital performed the surgery for a patient with Parkinson’s disease.

Because the patient is unable to fly to Hainan, experts from the Chinese PLA General Hospital (also known as the 301 Hospital), with 5G network support from China Mobile, for the first time performed a remote surgery between Hainan and Beijing.

The 5G network enabled the surgery to be performed nearly real-timely and at present, the patient is in good condition.

Brain pacemaker surgery is currently an effective method to treat the degenerative diseases of the nervous system represented by Parkinson’s disease. By accurately locating the abnormal discharge of brain nuclei and applying electrical stimulation, the patient’s symptoms can be improved.

During the operation, experts from both places discussed the plan through the 4K high-definition video conference system deployed by Huawei, and guaranteed the dynamic real-time sharing of patient data and historical diagnosis and treatment data by 5G network which has large bandwidth and low time delay.

In addition, the robot arm was controlled remotely and precisely by software, which successfully completed the operation for the patient.

“It was just like I was standing right next to the patient and inspecting her status. So the surgery was bolstered with 5G network which can transfer the images rapidly with low time delay and can make the remote operation possible. Now the distance is about 3,000 kilometers and we can do more collaborations with Belt and Road countries in the future,” said Ling Zhipei, chief physician at neurosurgery department, Hainan Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital.

The 5G network, featured with high speed, large bandwidth and low time delay, can effectively guarantee the stability, reliability and security of remote surgery. The success of the operation can provide more possibilities for all walks of life.

“It plays a significant role in transferring medical resources to lower levels and bringing down medical cost. Through this technology, we can extend the expertise and clinical experience of experts to the grassroots hospitals,” said Zhou Shan, deputy director of Hainan Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital.

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