Staying in touch with family members during a hospital stay, accessing digital services, communicating with a colleague in another department: in hospitals, reliable connectivity meets real, everyday needs. This, too, is part of the future of healthcare: digital infrastructure that supports innovation and puts new technologies at the service of patient care.
For healthcare professionals, seamless, uninterrupted connectivity facilitates information sharing, coordination between departments and new opportunities for patient care. For patients, it means being able to continue using their own devices and stay in touch with friends, family and colleagues throughout their hospital stay.
However, the layout of hospital buildings and thick walls can obstruct mobile signals, leaving some areas with weak or no coverage.
These needs prompted INWIT’s work at Valduce Hospital in Como and the Villa Beretta Rehabilitation Centre in Costa Masnaga. The Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) installed at the two facilities enable effective indoor mobile coverage, providing high-capacity, multi-operator connectivity for voice and data services. This project reaffirms INWIT’s commitment to the healthcare sector, with DAS systems installed in more than 180 hospitals and clinics across Italy, serving over 60,000 beds nationwide.
From communication to new opportunities for patient care
INWIT’s DAS systems provide access to a digital platform that will enable patients, visitors and healthcare professionals to improve their experience within the hospital through stable connectivity, remote consultations, the ability to reach others immediately, the sharing of medical reports and real-time monitoring of vital signs to support the effective delivery of healthcare protocols.
Looking ahead, there are further opportunities: together with the additional technological components required, this infrastructure could support the development of innovative applications, such as specialist teleconsultations directly from operating theatres, real-time sharing of diagnostic images and video streams, augmented reality systems to assist clinical procedures and connected medical devices. It could also contribute to advances in surgical robotics and new models of remote specialist collaboration.
At Villa Beretta in particular, 5G connectivity also provides a foundation for developing new applications in rehabilitation, from wearable devices to data sharing that helps clinicians monitor complex care pathways. This opens up opportunities for connectivity, sensor technologies and artificial intelligence to contribute to increasingly personalised care.
The project was inaugurated on 9 November at Valduce Hospital, in the presence of Alessio Butti, Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers for Technological Innovation.
“Investing in high-capacity connectivity, artificial intelligence and wearable technologies means creating new opportunities to improve patient monitoring, personalise care and support clinical research,” said Alessio Butti.
“Our DAS systems play a strategic role in enabling reliable indoor connectivity that is open to all operators, making it possible to adopt advanced healthcare technologies for the benefit of the medical community and patients,” commented Guido Improta, Chief External Relations & Communication Officer at INWIT.
