%0 Journal Article
%@ 2561-326X
%I JMIR Publications
%V 6
%N 5
%P e36824
%T Emergency Telemedicine Mobile Ultrasounds Using a 5G-Enabled Application: Development and Usability Study
%A Berlet,Maximilian
%A Vogel,Thomas
%A Gharba,Mohamed
%A Eichinger,Joseph
%A Schulz,Egon
%A Friess,Helmut
%A Wilhelm,Dirk
%A Ostler,Daniel
%A Kranzfelder,Michael
%+ Department of Surgery, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technical University Munich, Ismaningerstr 22, Munich, 81675, Germany, 49 89 4140 ext 5088, michael.kranzfelder@tum.de
%K 5G
%K telemedicine
%K telehealth
%K eHealth
%K digital health
%K digital medicine
%K mobile ultrasound
%K ultrasound
%K imaging
%K digitalized medicine
%K emergency care
%K emergency
%K ambulance
%K slicing
%K diagnostic
%K diagnosis
%K image quality
%K field test
%D 2022
%7 26.5.2022
%9 Original Paper
%J JMIR Form Res
%G English
%X Background: Digitalization affects almost every aspect of modern daily life, including a growing number of health care services along with telemedicine applications. Fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication technology has the potential to meet the requirements for this digitalized future with high bandwidths (10 GB/s), low latency (<1 ms), and high quality of service, enabling wireless real-time data transmission in telemedical emergency health care applications. Objective: The aim of this study is the development and clinical evaluation of a 5G usability test framework enabling preclinical diagnostics with mobile ultrasound using 5G network technology. Methods: A bidirectional audio-video data transmission between the ambulance car and hospital was established, combining both 5G-radio and -core network parts. Besides technical performance evaluations, a medical assessment of transferred ultrasound image quality and transmission latency was examined. Results: Telemedical and clinical application properties of the ultrasound probe were rated 1 (very good) to 2 (good; on a 6 -point Likert scale rated by 20 survey participants). The 5G field test revealed an average end-to-end round trip latency of 10 milliseconds. The measured average throughput for the ultrasound image traffic was 4 Mbps and for the video stream 12 Mbps. Traffic saturation revealed a lower video quality and a slower video stream. Without core slicing, the throughput for the video application was reduced to 8 Mbps. The deployment of core network slicing facilitated quality and latency recovery. Conclusions: Bidirectional data transmission between ambulance car and remote hospital site was successfully established through the 5G network, facilitating sending/receiving data and measurements from both applications (ultrasound unit and video streaming). Core slicing was implemented for a better user experience. Clinical evaluation of the telemedical transmission and applicability of the ultrasound probe was consistently positive. 
%M 35617009
%R 10.2196/36824
%U https://formative.jmir.org/2022/5/e36824
%U https://doi.org/10.2196/36824
%U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35617009