KUALA LUMPUR: First Ambulance Services Sdn Bhd (FAS) has partnered with YTL Communications Sdn Bhd to bring the first 5G smart ambulance services to Malaysia.
The collaboration between the two companies aims to provide enhanced emergency care through YES 5G Smart Ambulance service, enabling new use cases such as remote telemetry of diagnostics and imaging, in addition to extended reality (XR) powered telemedicine service.
Since April 2020, FAS has embraced YTL Communications' YES Fleet to provide 4G-powered telematics solutions and has enjoyed a substantial reduction in vehicle maintenance along with improvement in driver and dispatch efficiency.
With in-vehicle Wi-Fi from YES Fleet, FAS is able to transmit patient information and diagnostics to the hospital from the ambulance.
FAS managing director Steven Penafort said as a data-driven company, it is excited to utilise the high bandwidth and low latency 5G connectivity to transit patient health data.
This will include EKG telemetry and ultrasound images to the emergency care doctors - while the ambulance is en-route to the hospital - to dramatically improve triage time and hospital readiness to care for the patient upon arrival, said Penafort.
"Working with YES, we hope that the 5G Smart Ambulance will enable an integrated workflow between ambulances and hospitals for the benefit of the patients.
"We look forward to working with hospitals to embrace 5G as the coverage expands nationally," he said.
Meanwhile, YTL Communications chief executive officer Wing K Lee said as the first telco in Malaysia to bring 5G services to the Rakyat, YTLC believes firmly in the transformational power of 5G.
Lee said the company is grateful to have played a role in supporting FAS to improve emergency care using YES Fleet with 4G.
"The exciting leapfrog to 5G will enable new possibilities such as a first-in-Malaysia real-time streaming of ultrasound and EKG telemetry.
"The high performance of 5G also will enable another first-in-Malaysia – implementation of Extended Reality (XR) to allow the doctors to provide real time guidance to the technicians in the ambulance.
"These innovations will improve the speed and precision of emergency care and save lives," he added.
This collaboration is in line with the vision of the Ministry of Health to improve the overall efficiency and quality of emergency medical services in Malaysia.