PRESS RELEASE: China released a pioneering standard for its 5G hospital networks, following a joint drafting and verification process between the medical and telecommunication industries.

This standard exemplifies the accelerated digitalization of China’s healthcare industry and the key role 5G networks will begin to play in it as the next generation of information infrastructure. All involved parties agreed to submit this standard to the China National Health Commission in attempt to promote it as the industry standard.

A special working committee was also established under the National Telemedicine and Connected Healthcare Center, which will be responsible for perfecting and deploying this standard.

The standard outlines the principles that will guide 5G access network construction within and between hospitals, focusing on functionality, performance, security, reliability, environmental friendliness, maintenance, and future readiness of network connections, as well as technological specifications for typical applications. It will allow hospitals to improve on medical technology and services by ensuring that high-quality and secure 5G networks are available.

Under the direction of the China National Health Commission, China’s healthcare and communications industries began a collaborative effort to establish an industry standard in early September 2019. The process involved the China National Health Commission, the China Association of Medical Equipment, 95 leading Chinese hospitals, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China’s information and communication tech giant Huawei.

The consensus was reached quickly due to the active participation and contribution of all parties. This result enables more than 5,300 hospitals with connections established to the National Telemedicine and Connected Health Center to begin building high-quality 5G networks under the unified standard as soon as the technology becomes commercially available. The standard will be promoted across the entire healthcare industry in China to support the development of smart hospitals and healthcare services.

The release ceremony was attended by senior officials from the National Development Research Center and the China National Health Commission, principal persons from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, and representatives of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, as well as persons in charge of the government & corporate customer business of China’s tier-1 telecom operators and President of Huawei’s Digital Indoor System Network Product line.