ZTE and the Sichuan Branch of China Telecom have enabled China’s first remote diagnosis of the coronavirus pneumonia using a 5G network. West China Hospital and Chengdu Public Health Clinic Center of Sichuan University performed the diagnosis.

West China Hospital will serve as the central node of a remote consultation system supporting 27 hospitals that have accepted and treated patients. West China Hospital, Sichuan health officials and the Chengdu Public Health Clinic will use the 5G network to provide remote video consulting. The bandwidth and low latency of 5G makes the video connection for diagnosis and treatment higher quality.

ZTE will extend this remote diagnosis system to cover three levels: Sichuan province, city and county, providing a single network for remote diagnosis in front-line hospitals. ZTE plans to enable video consultation with the front-end medical team in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak. This will enable critical patients in Wuhan to receive diagnosis and treatment support from the West China Hospital.

On January 25, ZTE installed and connected 5G indoor base stations to a conference room at West China Hospital. The following day, ZTE completed construction, optimization, speed testing and commissioning of the 5G indoor distribution system at another core point. The indoor network connects to 5G base stations outdoors.

ZTE has obtained 35 commercial 5G contracts in Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.