“The Veterans Affairs Department officially expanded its 5G footprint to its Seattle-based Puget Sound Health Care System, through a partnership with AT&T.”
“At that health care hub, the agency will steer further technology-enabled experiments with telemedicine, wearables, virtual reality and more—in work that comes almost a year to the date that VA began strategically piloting the next-generation telecommunications technology with Verizon in a California hospital.”
“This latest move also marks ‘the first time 5G has been made available’ beyond siloed segments, and across the entirety of a large VA health care and training facility, Assistant Vice President-Civilian for AT&T Public Sector and FirstNet Garrick Yahnke explained.”
“He, and Daniel Mesimer, director of WAN/LAN Infrastructure Engineering and Provisioning Solution Delivery in VA’s Office of Information and Technology, IT Operations and Services, briefed Nextgov on the entities’ unfolding plans and broader collaborative vision to push forward 5G-enabled health care applications.”
The Path to Piloting
“Fifth-generation wireless-based solutions offer faster speeds, lower latency benefits and mobility that VA aims to leverage to enhance and upgrade the care it provides now—and treatments it could offer in the future…” Read the full article here.
Source: VA Partners with AT&T to Extend its 5G Experimentation – By Brandi Vincent, February 2, 2021. Nextgov.