M-Health Solutions Using 5G Networks and M2M Communications

Efforts to improve the potential of 5G networks and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications in a way that could help to develop and evolve mobile health (m-health) applications are still in preliminary stages. This is mainly because the specifications and technical solutions for these technologies are still being defined and are under extensive discussion. Thus, this is an excellent opportunity to establish the needs and requirements that future 5G networks must achieve to improve healthcare solutions. Ideally, future m-health solutions should provide services with near-zero latency, advanced quality-of-service capabilities, and data rates on the order of Gbps. This article presents recent research linking the growing m-health field with the need for 5G and M2M technologies. Moreover, this work explores the multiple benefits that these emerging technologies could bring to enable the broad expansion of m-health solutions.