Optical connectivity: a “win-win-win” for hospital managers, doctors, and patients

(April 2025) Always seeking ways to deliver better care, hospitals in Spain have embraced digital technology to improve collaboration among medical staff and improve the overall patient experience.

But some are still using legacy tech from 10 years or 15 years ago. To meet the challenges of the digital

age, they are increasingly turning to optical networks, which can handle the huge volumes of data needed to transfer medical images, conduct video conferences, and even connect patients at home, according to Javier Herrero, Vice President of the Digital Healthcare Commission at Ametic, an organization representing the digital technology industry in Spain.

“It is impossible at this moment to deploy a 4K high-definition multi-conference system using the infrastructure that we have now in Spanish hospitals,” he tells Huawei Editor-in-Chief Gavin Allen in an interview with Transform Talks.

“Imagine you have been trying to use your 4G or Wi-Fi mobile phone at a hospital, there’s a lot of problems, a lot of interference, a lot of different devices trying to communicate, each with its own protocol,” he says. “Well, one of the possibilities of technologies based on optical networks is to standardize all types of communication and reduce these problems.”