To perform surgery remotely, four things are required: a patient, a surgeon, a robot, and a very fast and bulletproof internet connection. Three of those four are relatively easy to find, and 5G is promising to provide the fourth as remote surgery on a laboratory animal in China just proved.
As Ubergizmo reports, a surgeon in the southeastern province of Fujian in China performed surgery on a laboratory animal roughly 30 miles away. The link was created using a 5G network, with the latency thought to be only 100 milliseconds, or around 0.1 seconds. The surgery performed involved removing the animal's liver, which was completed successfully.
The big advantage of using a 5G network for remote surgery is the reduced latency it offers. The lower the latency, the more responsive the surgery robot will be to the surgeon's actions tens or hundreds of miles away. That in turn reduces the chances of mistakes being made and allows the surgeon to work as if they are actually present in the same room.
Due to the equipment upgrades required to get a real 5G network operating, developed nations will gain access to it first. However, that will still allow surgeons the flexibility of being able to operate anywhere in the US or across Europe while remaining in the comfort of their own lab. And once 5G is more readily available, it will allow for surgeons to be on hand during disaster situations simply by deploying robots to the location.