Democratizing Healthcare in Remote Regions with AR Telemedicine

Using Cutting-Edge Technology to Provide Life-Saving Medical Care in Sinan County's Remote Islands: How Mokpo City Medical Center and VIRNECT Are Democratizing Healthcare with AR Telemedicine

Access to quality healthcare is a fundamental right for every individual. Still, it remains a challenge for many people living in remote areas. For example, Sinan County in South Korea, with its 880 small islands and population of 43,000 people, faces a severe healthcare challenge. The lack of medical facilities and experienced professionals has made it difficult to provide adequate medical care to the people living in these areas. The situation has led to Sinan County being ranked first in the country's Health Care Deprivation Index.

To address this pressing challenge, the government of Sinan has acquired many ambulance helicopters to transport patients in need to medical facilities. However, it's impossible to fly these helicopters for 27% of the year due to adverse weather conditions. In addition, the aging population has made it harder to find experienced medical professionals, with the average Sinan medical practitioner having only one year of experience.

Mokpo City Medical Center (MCMC) is a leading healthcare provider in South Korea, serving a wide range of patients. The center's mission is to provide modern medicine to rural areas, including fishing villages located on remote islands. Despite their many efforts, they still feel they could do more if equipped with the right tools. So, together with Mokpo National University and VIRNECT, they embarked on a journey to make specialists available for the most inaccessible areas of Sinan County.

MCMC deployed a customized version of VIRNECT Remote, an AR telemedicine solution that provides improved telediagnosis and treatment. This solution was modified to tackle two areas of concern. First, VIRNECT updated the software to work with end-to-end encrypted medical history databases, ensuring secure data transmission. Second, they halved the latency from two to one second to achieve video streaming in 4K quality over 5G networks with a 120 Mbps speed.

The system allowed for the treatment of a 63-year-old man suffering from pneumothorax after being hit by a wall that collapsed due to strong winds. A young general practitioner confirmed the diagnosis through a chest X-ray but could not proceed with the treatment due to a lack of knowledge. However, remote specialists using AR-based technology allowed for appropriate chest tube insertion, oxygen, and IV treatments. This critical support kept the patient stable while he was reached by an ambulance helicopter.
On the expert side, the VIRNECT solution also allows for the seamless visualization of oxygen saturation levels and the patient's medical history, enabling remote specialists to share crucial information for medical decisions. The system has also fostered knowledge spillover, with many general practitioners becoming experts in the most common local cases.

The deployment of VIRNECT Remote was a great success in providing adequate medical care to patients in remote areas. By allowing general practitioners to collaborate with remote specialists, patients are now being treated faster and stabilized within the golden time. In addition, MCMC's efforts to democratize healthcare with AR telemedicine have improved the quality of life for many people living in Sinan County.