New Developments for Robotics in the Healthcare Sector

Robotics has seen varied applications in possibly every field that one can think of. Education, travel, defense, you name it and you get to see how far we've evolved on the robotics front. The healthcare sector has seen a remarkable change in how things have progressed. With the pandemic that left us in dismay, the healthcare sector served to be a boon. Surviving the pandemic wasn't easy and the sole reason why we've made it through is because of the healthcare sector.

The pandemic has stressed how critical social distancing is. This is a challenge for the healthcare workers as they'll have to address the issues of the patients. But, robots are no less than a savior here. With robots in place, it is easier than ever to reduce in-person contact between health care workers and sick patients. But, would this be as welcomed by the patients as anticipated? Hence, what remains a concern is how the patients will react to a robot entering the exam room.

A lot of researchers conducted varied studies to find how the patients react to robots entering the exam room. One team found out that a good chunk of patients reported that when they were interacting with a health care provider via a video screen that was mounted on a robot was hardly different from the interaction with a doctor or nurse. These findings boost the confidence that people are not that scared or worried as was expected. The focus is now on designing robots that cater to the safety of both – patients as well as healthcare workers. Well, not just this. Some researchers also found that a lot of patients were also okay with having robots performing minor procedures. One task could be taking the swab sample for tests.

The pandemic has served to be a wake-up call for everyone to bring in the right technology that'd reduce the intensity of the surge in cases. Following this, Traverso and his colleagues started paying attention to develop new strategies aimed at minimizing the interaction between potentially sick patients and health care workers to the greatest extent possible. The team went on to create a mobile robot that could interact with patients as they waited in the emergency department. For this, they worked with Boston Dynamics.

The robot was designed in such a manner that it had sensors incorporated within itself. With these sensors, it was possible to measure skin temperature, pulse rate as well as the rate of breathing and also blood oxygen level. Well, there's more to it. The robot is equipped with an iPad. This paved the way for video communication with the doctor or nurse. For over a year, we've seen the healthcare workers donning the protective equipment that's required for every interaction. With these robots in place, all of this is reduced to a large extent.

Yet another study involved patients being asked about their symptoms via video communication. When the patients were asked about their experience on the same, the results astonished almost everyone. They reported that they were quite happy with how the process went. They found the interaction similar to that of person-to-person interaction.

All in all, the results are quite positive and with people starting to show a keen interest in how robots would assist in medical procedures, it is now time that scientists get going with designing robots with improved technology so that the overall experience is enhanced and fruitful.