Enabling Communication and Networking Technologies for 6G in Healthcare Sector

Future sixth-generation (6G) networks and the Internet of Things (IoT) are expected to transform the healthcare sector by offering opportunities to enhance patient outcomes and effective resource optimization. This can result in healthcare systems that collect, analyze, and disseminate real-time data to improve patient care and clinical decision-making. This paper surveys enabling communication and networking technologies in the healthcare sector. We provide a discussion on the healthcare monitoring system (HCMS), which is pivotal for functioning any enabling technology in healthcare. We emphasize how the enabling technologies in 6G are important in the healthcare sector and provide a comparison. Solutions for mission-critical healthcare are also discussed. We highlight security and privacy challenges and discuss blockchain technology for secure and efficient data management.