Launch of Barcelona Health Hub 5G Design, a 5G laboratory in the health sector

• MWCapital, MASMOVIL Group, i2CAT and Barcelona Health Hub have sealed an agreement to boost the use of 5G technology in the health sector as part of the 5G Barcelona initiative
• The laboratory, which is located in Hospital de Sant Pau, will host pilot trials and concept tests in order to rise to new challenges and meet new needs

18 March, 2021

Barcelona, 18 March 2021.- Mobile World Capital Barcelona, through the 5G Barcelona initiative, together with MASMOVIL, i2CAT and the Barcelona Health Hub Association, are launching Barcelona Health Hub 5G Design, a site intended for the co-creation of eHealth solutions based on 5G technology and its services.

Barcelona Health Hub 5G Design, located in the Sant Manel Pavilion of the Art Nouveau complex of Hospital Sant Pau, will provide a 5G technology-focused meeting point for companies, institutions and organizations destined to rise to challenges and meet vertical needs in the health sector, and therefore to boost the use of 5G technology in this sector. The goals of the project are co-creation, to evaluate the health sector’s technological challenges with a view to improving existing services and applications, and to encourage the collaborative creation of new applications and services.

The laboratory is a place for designing, developing and performing different pilot trials and concept tests. The mission of Barcelona Health Hub 5G Design is both to offer a cross-disciplinary perspective of health sector use cases, through brainstorming sessions, training, workshops and sessions with experts, and also to become an international byword for digital health by positioning Barcelona as a world benchmark.

According to Eduard Martín, CEO of 5G Barcelona and CIO and 5G Director of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, “given the current health crisis, it is more important than ever to encourage initiatives that boost faster progress. Technology as a whole and 5G have already proven they can be crucial and may be even more so in the future so we all need to work together to achieve this”.

“In the MASMOVIL Group, we are committed to developing practical uses of 5G technology with which to improve the wellbeing of our customers and of society at large. Through this experience we hope we can continue to offer and to develop quality telemedicine services that are available to everyone”, stated José Jiménez, Director of Innovation and Strategic Projects of the MASMOVIL Group.

Dr Sergi Figuerola, CTIO of the i2CAT Foundation and CTO of 5G Barcelona, meanwhile emphasized that “the goal is to speed up the technological innovation offered by 5G. This is particularly necessary in dealing with the current critical situation in the healthcare sector. Barcelona Health Hub 5G Design has been launched to address the technological challenges identified by its members as a result of the enhancement and application of knowledge in 5G technology”.

Luis Badrinas, CEO Barcelona Health Hub & Community of Insurance, confirmed that “the implementation of 5G has always featured among our strategic goals and fits perfectly onto our roadmap for further improving medical care and producing a real impact in our healthcare systems”.

Mrs Aline Noizet, Chief International Officer at BHH stated that “this laboratory will enable our members to test and to implement 5G technology in their products and will help to speed up the digitisation of medical care. We have many companies that are working on telemedicine solutions based on artificial intelligence and virtual reality, etc. Such technologies will benefit a great deal from 5G”.