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Inside Out & Outside In
Opinion
David Dodwell
David Dodwell

Inside Out | Coronavirus tech will continue to improve our lives long after the pandemic is over

  • The pandemic is spawning a tech revolution that will change our lives for the better, with technologies in everything from telemedicine and e-learning to home working set to receive a turbo boost from the 5G roll-out, particularly in China

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A police security robot patrols near the high-speed railway station in Shenzhen on March 6. It can warn people if they are not wearing masks, and check their body temperature and identity. Photo: EPA-EFE
David Dodwell

When Wuhan’s Hongshan Sports Centre was converted, in the blink of an eye, into a Smart Field Hospital capable of taking 20,000 coronavirus patients, inmates were temperature-checked remotely by 5G-powered thermometers, and tagged with smart bracelets to enable 24-hour medical monitoring. Medicines were delivered by robots, as was food. Robots also cleaned and disinfected, and supplied quarantine materials. I understand humanoid robots also led exercise classes.

This was meticulous social distancing and contactless service in the extreme. But it also freed medical staff of huge amounts of routine, enabling them to concentrate on those in need of direct and immediate care.
Just as the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak spawned China’s e-commerce revolution, so the dreadful Covid-19 pandemic is incubating an even more radical revolution, turbocharged by the rolling out of 5G services. While we fervently hope the pandemic will subside quickly without too high a human cost, my bet is that much of the technology developed to enable us to function safely during the crisis will remain. It will benefit the world, but nowhere more than China.
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New services built on the powerful new 5G platforms will not only transform health care, but also education services, office working practices, digitally supported supply chains, and the delivery of a wide range of consumer services.

Just 3 per cent of China’s smartphone owners have signed up for 5G packages, but research by consultants Bain & Company says 97 per cent are poised to capture 5G opportunities. Manicures, massages and haircuts will still be delivered up close and personal, but with 5G empowerment, a surprising number of other consumer services may not.

Changes to health care delivery were necessitated by the Covid-19 crisis, but even as the urgency subsides, my bet is that many health delivery habits are likely to have changed forever. In the past, much of China’s health care was delivered through its 11,000 first-grade hospitals.

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