By GCN Staff
Mar 02, 2021
The Department of Veterans Affairs is installing 5G networks at its Miami and Puget Sound health care facilities.
Working with T-Mobile, which currently provides the in-building 4G LTE wireless connectivity at the Miami Health Care System, the VA will install in-building 5G radios for 2.5 GHz spectrum to deliver speeds of 300 megabit/sec with peaks up to 1 gigabit/sec.
The faster network will allow medical teams to quickly move and access large, complex data files, such as imaging results, labs and medical charts, without having to be tethered to a computer, the company said.
T-Mobile already provides up to 70,000 lines of wireless service to doctors, nurses and hospital staff across VA hospitals and has helped enhance access to the VA s telehealth platform, VA Video Connect.
VAntage Point
ATLAS site in Virginia provides space for convenient VA care
Veterans who live near Springfield, Virginia, have likely sat idling in traffic on Interstate 395 on their way to receive health care in Washington, D.C. For those Veterans, navigating D.C.’s heavy traffic is no longer a problem – at least for their VA health care appointments. Thanks to ATLAS (Accessing Telehealth through Local Area Stations), those Veterans can now meet face to face with their VA providers through video telehealth technology in a private appointment room at American Legion Post 176 in Springfield.
The state-of-the-art appointment space in Post 176 is one of several ATLAS sites nationwide. ATLAS is VA’s innovative virtual health care option to help increase Veteran access to care. It not only provides a solution for Veterans with long travel times to VA facilities, but it also provides easy access for Veterans with limited internet connectivity at home.