Doctor performs first 5G surgery

BARCELONA, SPAIN - Next-generation wireless technology is taking the medical world a crucial step closer to robots performing remotely controlled surgery, a doctor in Spain said Wednesday after carrying out the world's first 5G-powered telementored operation. Doctors have telementored surgeries in the past using wireless networks, but blazing fast 5G increases image quality and definition, which are crucial for medical teams to take decisions with as much information, and as few mistakes, as possible. "This is a first step to achieve our dream, which is to make remote operations in the near future," said Dr. Antonio de Lacy after providing real-time guidance via a 5G video link from a Barcelona congress center to a surgical team that operated on a patient with an intestinal tumor about 5 kilometers away at the Hospital Clinic. Experts predict 5G will allow surgeons to control a robot arm to carry out operations in remote locations that lack specialist doctors. De Lacy, the head of the hospital's gastrointestinal surgery service, used his finger to draw on a screen an area of the intestine where nerves are located and instructed the team how to navigate the surgery.