The consortium won the award through the 5G Create competition run by the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).
The Liverpool 5G Create: Connecting Health and Social Care project includes the University of Liverpool and will develop a private independent 5G network for health and social care services in selected areas of the northern English city.
The network is designed to reduce “digital poverty” for vulnerable people in need, providing safe, free and accessible connectivity to services including health, social care and education.
Manage and monitor
The 5G technology will be used to support a medical grade device to manage and monitor health conditions remotely, an app that teaches anxiety reduction techniques, a remote GP triaging service, wound care and management and sensor technology.
The project builds on the previous 5G Health and Social Care Testbed in Kensington, Liverpool. Liverpool 5G Create will increase the area covered, upgrade the existing mmWave nodes, integrate small cell technology and trial a range of new use cases in health and social care.
Professor Joe Spencer, who is with the University’s Department of Electrical Engineering & Electronics and the project’s leader, said: “This is a great opportunity to build on our previous testbed and develop the British technology that can change people’s lives by enabling affordable connectivity and reducing digital poverty.”
Private 5G networks
The project will run until March 2022 and will develop a blueprint for the use of private 5G networks in delivering public services. The blueprint will be disseminated across public bodies leading to increased use of private networks for public services with reduced risk, based on the DCMS Testbed and Trials Programme.
The 5G Create competition is part of the DCMS’ 5G Testbed and Trials Programme.