Verizon Business is partnering with Visionable to spur the delivery of virtual health care programs.

Visionable, a digital health care collaboration platform, allows health care professionals to work together, share resources and access data relevant to their practice.

Dubbed Care Everywhere, the new partnership would integrate Visionable’s expertise with Verizon’s communications technology in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as in Asia Pacific.

The new initiative will target several health care settings, spanning from surgeries to nursing homes and connected ambulances. The two companies will open a specialized technology-led Connected Healthcare Center in the U.K. next year.

Verizon is considering its private 5G connectivity platform as the basis for this collaboration, in a move that would extend its presence overseas.

The first private 5G deal under its Europe and Asia Pacific unit came in April 2021 through a partnership deal with U.K.-based Associated British Ports, which operates Southampton Port.

Private 5G networks have gained ground with enterprises looking to run IoT networks at the edge with extremely low latency while avoiding bottlenecks inherent with public 5G networks.

Verizon is doubling down on its 5G services for IoT clients having recently unveiled plans to introduce hybrid satellite 5G connectivity through a partnership with Amazon’s Kuiper unit.

In health care, the benefits could be enormous in terms of delivering virtual care to underserved communities and sharing intelligence to identify and categorize diseases, according to Scott Lawrence, vice president of Verizon Business EMEA.

“This initiative with Visionable provides a secure single infrastructure on which health care providers can collaborate to help diagnose conditions and share medical intelligence, all within a secure and compliant environment,” Lawrence said.

When it comes to connected intelligence, the medical industry faces more barriers than most. A warren of privacy laws and device regulations protect the patient’s safety and rights, and many technical innovations will encounter regulatory scrutiny.

Using private 5G bandwidth to run data away from other clients could allow virtual health care to reach locations like prisons and residential care homes, places that currently depend on periodical GP visits, according to Verizon.