| Location |
Portugal – Northern Region (mainly Porto District) |
| Sectors |
Healthcare |
| Network type |
5G standalone mobile network |
| Project start - end date (duration) |
1 March 2024 – 28 February 2027 (36 months) |
| Total budget |
€3.32 million |
| EU contribution |
€2.49 million |
| Lead entity / organisation |
NOS Comunicações, S.A. |
| Beneficiaries and partners |
Beneficiaries:
Associated partner: ULSAM - Unidade Local de Saúde do Alto Minho, Epe |
What will it provide?
The project aims to contribute to improving the National Health Service in Portugal, benefitting patients as well as healthcare providers. It will enable the deployment of advanced healthcare solutions in Portugal’s Northern Region, with a focus on the Porto District, featuring connected ambulances and helicopters, medical training using live video feed of robotic surgery, remote support to diagnosis and monitoring, and virtual and augmented reality in the recovery of patients.
How will it work?
The project’s standalone 5G network will enable the implementation of six use cases:
- Connected emergency vehicles
The network will enable the real-time transfer of medical data and video streaming between 16 ambulances and two helicopters and the hospital, allowing remote monitoring, evaluation and support by a specialist.
- Robotic surgery live streaming
The network will enable real-time transmission of robotic surgeries performed at the hospital to surgeons, medical staff and students, allowing optimising the learning curve for robotic surgery and fast-tracking its adoption in fields including general surgery, urology, gynaecology and thoracic surgery.
- Telemedicine within the Metropolitan Emergency Network
The network will enable real-time transmission of videos and medical data, allowing assessment by remote specialists.
- 5G Internet of Things for a health monitoring environment
The network will enable the real-time monitoring of remote patients’ vital signs, reducing the need for hospitalisation for many patients. The network will also enable the hospital to store the remotely gathered data, allowing it to maintain a continuous chronology of patients’ histories.
- Virtual reality in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU);
The network will enable the use of virtual reality as an innovative therapy in the recovery of critically ill patients who are conscious in the ICU, allowing a non-pharmacological intervention that can help reduce anxiety, depression and stress levels; decrease the incidence of delirium; and also decrease Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS), improving quality of life and social reinsertion of ICU patients after returning home.
- Off-site anatomical pathology diagnosis
The network will enable the scanning of more detailed and elaborate laboratory analysis slides and the generation of high-quality digital images, as well as their transmission for specialised diagnosis, allowing a faster, safer and more effective diagnosis.
How will it be built?
The project will deploy a standalone 5G network covering urban areas within a 30-minute radius of the hospital’s assistance area. It will include slice configuration for healthcare service requirements, addressing the need for critical services, high availability and reliability, data locality with dedicated traffic breakout for the hospital, and network architecture designed with security in mind.
Targeting download speeds of 500 Mbps, the network will comprise:
- 5G deployment at 700 MHz;
- Approximately 20 stations, reinforced with an additional 100 MHz of bandwidth from the 3.6 GHz band;
- A new 5G core in standalone mode;
- Within the hospital: an indoor station with active Enhanced Distributed Antenna System (eDAS) distributed in 19 sectors with 154 Ericsson Radio Dots;
- Cloud and edge computing resources.
How is it financed?
The project has a total budget of €3.32 million, of which €2.49 million under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital programme.
Who is involved?
The project is lead by NOS Comunicações, S.A., as project coordinator, with NOS Comunicações, S.A., NOS Technology, S.A., CHUSJ - Centro Hospital de São João, Epe, and INEM - Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médical as beneficiaries; and ULSAM - Unidade Local de Saúde do Alto Minho, Epe as associated partner.
How can I find out more about the project?
For more information, please contact the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) or visit the project page in the EU Funding and Tenders Portal.