Enhanced emergency care/ambulance services kicks off in Malaysia

In a bid to improve the overall efficiency and quality of emergency medical services in Malaysia, two local companies have announced a strategic partnership to provide telemedicine and diagnostics services to the hospital from the ambulance, via the “5G Smart Ambulance.”

First Ambulance Services (FAS) and leading telecommunications provider YTL Communications (YTLC) will endeavour to provide in-vehicle Wi-Fi from YES Fleet so that FAS is able to transmit important patient information and diagnostics in real-time. FAS has embraced YTL Communications’ YES Fleet since April 2020, which provides 4G-powered telematics solutions – FAS has enjoyed a substantial reduction in vehicle maintenance along with improvement in driver and dispatch efficiency.

Steven Penafort, FAS Managing Director, said, “As a data-driven company, we are excited to utilise the high bandwidth and low latency 5G connectivity to transit patient health data such as 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.

“Working with YES, the national champion of 5G – 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,” Penafort added.

Chiming in is Wing K. Lee, CEO of YTL Communications, “As the first telco in Malaysia to bring 5G services to the Rakyat, YTLC believes firmly in the transformational power of 5G. We are grateful to have played a role in supporting FAS 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 will provide real time guidance to the technicians in the ambulance. These innovations will improve the speed and precision of emergency care and save lives,” said Lee.

At the launch event, Malaysia’s Minister of Health Khairy Jamaluddin commented that he is looking forward to the adoption and integration of 5G technologies in public health.

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