LIST coordinates 6G-CARE, a three-year EU project testing 6G-ready connectivity with real patients and clinical teams across six European settings.
Healthcare is a demanding test for networks: a dropped link can stop a patient’s monitoring. Funded by the EU through the SNS JU, 6G-CARE brings together 18 partners from nine countries to test next-generation connectivity with real patients and clinical teams. Six trials cover remote physiotherapy in Luxembourg, connected ambulances near Barcelona, disaster response in Crete, sleep apnoea therapy in France, autism assessments in the UK and first responders in Belgium.
We asked coordinator Sébastien Faye, Head of LIST’s DISCO Research Group, why healthcare is a good 6G testbed and what patients can expect.
“When a network drops or lags, it is not a video that buffers […]”
Sébastien Faye, Head of the Distributed & Intelligent Connectivity (DISCO) Research Group at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)
Why is healthcare a good testbed for 6G, and what will it bring compared with today’s 5G?
Few sectors are as demanding on connectivity as healthcare. When a network drops or lags, it is not a video that buffers: it can be a paramedic waiting for advice or a patient whose monitoring stops. Reliability, responsiveness and security directly affect care.
5G already gives us a strong foundation. 6G promises to go further, with networks that are more intelligent and adapt on their own, AI capabilities placed closer to users, and new possibilities for sensing and immersive communication, such as following a patient’s movements in 3D in real time.
What makes 6G-CARE different is where we start. We do not build a technology and then look for a use. We start from needs that doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and emergency teams have told us about, and test whether next-generation networks actually meet them.
Which of the six trials could change patients’ lives the most in the short term, and why?
It is hard to choose: each trial answers a very different need. But if I had to pick one that many readers will recognise, it would be our French trial on sleep apnoea.
Sleep apnoea is a common condition, and most people know someone who sleeps with a CPAP mask. The treatment works, yet many patients give up on it within months because it is uncomfortable or poorly adjusted to them. With our partner Linde Homecare, we will use AI and connected sensors to adapt the therapy to each patient, so fewer people abandon it. It builds on a treatment that already exists, which is why the benefits could come quickly.
Closer to home, our Luxembourg trial tackles something just as concrete: care home residents will do their physiotherapy where they live, with a therapist guiding them remotely, instead of travelling to a practice.
“Privacy and security are built into our architecture from the start […]”
Sébastien Faye, Head of the Distributed & Intelligent Connectivity (DISCO) Research Group at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)
How will you protect the privacy and security of health data transmitted in real time, for example by ambulances or drones?
Privacy and security are built into our architecture from the start, not added at the end. Sensitive clinical data is protected by encryption and strict access controls. Information that identifies a patient stays within the local healthcare environment where care is delivered. The common European platform we use to run and evaluate the trials only receives anonymised or aggregated data. We work closely with our healthcare partners to comply with GDPR and the applicable medical regulations.
With the European Health Data Space, the EU is now building a common framework for sharing health data safely. 6G-CARE wants to show that connected care can earn that trust from day one, by designing it with the people who will use it.
What measurable results do you expect within three years (response times, avoided journeys, CO₂ emissions)?
We want to show better healthcare, not just faster networks. Every trial is measured against how things are done today.
Emergency care: we aim to cut the time between the ambulance’s arrival and medical intervention, potentially by more than 15%.
Fewer journeys: our Luxembourg trial will measure how many trips remote physiotherapy saves care home residents and therapists, and the CO₂ that goes with them.
Care itself: we also track patient outcomes, how easy clinicians find the tools, and operational efficiency.
“Our goal is not just six successful demonstrations.”
Sébastien Faye, Head of the Distributed & Intelligent Connectivity (DISCO) Research Group at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)
What is LIST’s role in the project, and how will the lessons be shared with other regions in Europe?
LIST coordinates the consortium of 18 partners and leads the large-scale trials. That includes the Luxembourg trial, which combines physiotherapy delivered through extended reality (XR) with telemedicine for emergency teams.
We also bring our own technology. Our network digital twins, virtual replicas used to test and steer a network before acting on the real one, come from 6G-TWIN, another EU project we coordinate. And we host the common trial-management platform that connects the six sites.
Our goal is not just six successful demonstrations. We want to produce technologies, methods and results that other hospitals, care providers and regions can reuse. That will happen through open-source contributions, input to standards and practical guidelines for replicating the trials elsewhere.