5G-HEART & 5G-Tours: 3D Telepresence
5G-HEART and 5G-Tours were two parallel EU Horizon 2020 projects that used emerging 5G network infrastructure to enable real-time clinical communication at a distance. Both projects ran concurrently; the 3D telepresence system was built across both, combining effort and sharing architecture.
In the 5G-Tours project, we examined the use of 3D Telepresence for supporting Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs), providing insight for remote traumatologists and other experts to the accident site. This supports the remote team in making routing and planning decisions, and preparing the hospital team. With XR, the remote experts can guide the local EMTs with visual instructions.
In 5G-HEART, we focused on congenital heart disease: a remote pediatric cardiologist can examine a patient in real time — seeing a live 3D representation of the patient alongside ultrasound streams — as if present in the room. The cardiologist controls a virtual ultrasound probe to guide a local clinician on conducting the specialised screening. The local clinician sees the guidance superimposed on the patient in 3D via an XR headset.
Architecture work
The system had to meet defined non-functional requirements: 100 MB/s throughput, end-to-end latency ≤300 ms, on a dedicated 5G network slice. These are not generous targets for a system integrating VR rendering, WebRTC media, real-time ultrasound data, and multi-party positional tracking across heterogeneous headsets (Meta Quest, HTC Vive, HoloLens). The architecture defined how each stream was handled, where latency was absorbed, and how failures in any one stream were isolated from the others.
The system was technically validated on operational 4G and 5G testbeds — not simulated networks. It was also evaluated with clinical practitioners.
The video below illustrates the pediatric cardiology use case. The remote expert has an XR application on HTC Vive or Oculus Quest 3 showing live volumetric video and Ultrasound images where he can manipulate a virtual probe. The local caregiver wears an XR headset (HoloLens 2) and sees Ultrasound images and the virtual probe on the patient. The remote expert gives verbal and visual guidance on how to perform the exam.
EU programme context
Delivered within Horizon 2020 projects 5G-HEART and 5G-Tours, running in parallel. Technical lead on a 5-engineer team.
Note: CORDIS shows Philips Research as the participant organisation.
Credentials demonstrated
EU R&D delivery, real-time systems architecture, 5G network integration, non-functional requirement definition and verification, clinical practitioner evaluation, multi-platform XR integration, team leadership.