Fast Detection and Interruption of Chains of Infection

The outbreak of infectious diseases in hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities can have serious consequences - for patients as well as staff. Due to the high density of people and the highly frequented contact between patients and staff, an outbreak of infection can spread rapidly and pose a health hazard for all concerned. In order to quickly contain the spread of infection, it can be helpful to locate medical equipment. For this purpose, the devices must be positioned with sufficient accuracy to establish an unambiguous assignment of the device to a hospital bed and a patient or room. This allows chains of infection to be broken more quickly and patients to be better protected. In the aftermath of infections, the positioning data obtained in combination with artificial intelligence can also be used to draw conclusions for future improvements in clinical processes to prevent the spread of infections and the formation of infection chains.

Already for Release 16 a spatially accurate positioning within 5G was defined as a goal. With the relative positioning to a hospital bed (Device-to-Device, D2D) or, from Release 17 on, with a potential accuracy of less than 1 meter, it may be possible to achieve an unambiguous assignment to a single source of infection.