The Veterans Affairs Department’s Veterans Health Administration and Verizon have been collaborating on the testing and development of 5G drones and mobile edge compute—or MEC—technologies to enhance the safety and security of medical facilities and patients.
The pilot project is being conducted at the National Center for Collaborative Healthcare Innovation, or NCCHI, a hub established within the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in California to help harness the innovative capabilities of Silicon Valley in support of veterans…
The work on the pilot began in April, and [Dr. Thomas Osborne, NCCHI’s director and the chief medical informatics officer at VA Palo Alto] said much of the effort so far has entailed holding brainstorming sessions and “sketching out protocols and standard operating procedures,” with input provided by VA Palo Alto’s leadership and VA’s police services. Some of the hospital system’s police officers and staff members have also completed courses and testing to become Federal Aviation Administration-certified drone operators, and VA Palo Alto is continuing to collaborate with its partners and the FAA to ensure that the initiative is moving forward appropriately.
“We’ve already started working on simulated emergency response scenarios and testing, and we’re iterating and planning on those so we can be optimally prepared for when something does happen,” Osborne added… Read the full article here.
