Recently, the national final of the 4th “Blossoming Cup” 5G Application Healthcare Special Competition was hosted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The case “Practice of 5G Telemedicine and Fundus Laser Surgery” of PUMCH, among 681 entries nationwide, won the 1st prize. The project, through furthering the exploration and applications of “Internet + healthcare”, provides high-quality, efficient and integrated medical services to patients.

The project achieved breakthroughs in overcoming technical bottlenecks of using the conventional network to carry out remote ophthalmic surgeries, including the world’s first 5G tele-retinal laser photocoagulation, 6-hour continuous tele-surgery, and remote surgery over a distance of 3,700 km. The project explored a set of hospital standard practices on 5G-enabled ophthalmic telemedicine innovations and implemented a “killer application”; it is also an exemplary innovation of adopting 5G + AI/IoT/cloud computing/big data/edge computing to bring quality medical resources to the community level. The project provides new momentum for the development of smart healthcare.

Based on practical experience, Director Chen Youxin’s team published a cover paper “The Application of 5G Technology to Conduct Real-Time Tele-retinal Laser Photocoagulation for the Treatment of Diabetic Retinopathy” in the international ophthalmology journal JAMA Ophthalmology (impact factor 7.389), which helps disseminate the PUMCH experience far and wide.

In the final round, Chen Youxin, Director of the Department of Ophthalmology, was giving a project presentation. Qin Mingwei, Director of the Telemedicine Centre, also participated in the virtual roadshow.

Text: Chen Huan, Department of Ophthalmology

Photo: Department of Ophthalmology

Translator: Liu Haiyan

Editor: Zhang Xia and Wang Yao