Guest Post: Lauryn Schimmel, Managing
Director, ChartaCloud Technologies
While many
are aware of the uses of advanced surgical robots that perform precise roles
during surgery, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight and share some
of the other currently active roles that humanoid robots are taking in
healthcare today! Words cannot express the joy experienced when a robot can
become a distraction, educator, and a friend to children in frightening
hospital corridors. In addition, witnessing a robot bring seniors to their feet
and smiles to their faces during what started as just another day
in a senior living community is powerfully meaningful and illustrative of the
amazing world of technological innovation that we live in. I invite you
to take a look at some of the exciting things that are happening in the world
of humanoid robotics!
Humanoid
Robots equipped with proprietary RxApplicationsTM are clinically
proven to reduce children’s pain by 50% and increase vaccination rates by 10%.
The humanoid robot in pediatric care settings acts as a pain coach, physical
companion, and motivator. RxApplicationsTM control the humanoid
robots behaviors during a specific medical procedure. These behaviors are
sequenced to work at the same pace as the healthcare professional who is
conducting the medical procedure. The humanoid robot coaches, educates and
provides companionship before, during, and after procedures using
research-based cognitive-behavioral interventions. RxApplicationsTM
are customized for each hospital and allow the hospital to innovate their use
of the humanoid robot. Templates are used to create RxApplicationsTM
when available, otherwise it is possible to develop new medical and dental
procedures from scratch.
Current
RxApplicationsTM in use include:
□
Blood
Test
□
Breathing
Coaching
□
Dental
Cleaning
□
Dental
Local Anesthetic
□
Dental
Nitrous Oxide
□
Dressing
Changes
□
EEG
□
Foley
Catheter Removal
|
□
Induction
□
IV
Start
□
Medical
Play
□
Orthodontist
Greeting
□
Oxygen
Tube Insertion
□
Port
Access
□
Vaccination
□
Videofluoroscopic
Swallow Study
|
In the
Pediatric Healthcare setting, the humanoid robot provides benefit to every
clinic as well as for hospice care. The robot was able to increase vaccination
rates by 10% during a clinical study by calming children that were kicking,
punching, and biting the nurses beforehand. The robot provides relief to
children as young as two and as old as sixteen years old.
Senior Living
NAO, the
humanoid robot developed and designed by Aldebaran Robotics, is currently
located in over 200 assisted living communities around the world. Its first
purpose to was demonstrate some exercise to the residents and have the
residents imitate NAO doing the same movement to help them move and stretch.
This enabled caregivers to really be by the resident’s side and help those who
needed movement correction or assistance, while NAO led the show. With this
great success, more and more caregivers are asking for other behaviors and
applications. The elderly see NAO as a little child and often, when NAO is
introduced to them, they take him in their arms like a baby and start to baby
him.
One day,
during a presentation, one resident named Marcel, began to talk with NAO. Using
the ZORA platform, it was possible to answer through the robot to Marcel.
They spoke together nearly 20 minutes. This was awesome because Marcel
typically was a withdrawn resident and during these 20 minutes he spoke more
than what he had done for 4 years during his life at the retirement home.
NAO can be
remotely controlled by the staff; this way the robot can walk into a room “by
itself” instead of being carried in by a caregiver. This way, the resident can
naturally discuss with NAO and have the feeling of being “alone” with him. Of
course, the whole situation is monitored thanks to video and audio streaming
and the caregivers can supervise and interact through NAO. NAO helps the caregivers
support residents, alleviate loneliness, and make them interact in a natural
way.
In
addition, NAO is able to assist the caregivers. There are a lot of “cold tasks”
meaning that there are some duties such as answering to frequent questions of
the residents, that take a lot of time and aren’t ‘as important’ as other
tasks. So the caregivers often neglect them. For instance, every day, every
resident asks (and sometimes more than once): “What are we eating today?”. The
caregivers haven’t enough time to answer to everyone. So, they had the idea of
using NAO to do it. The robot stays on a table each morning and tells the daily
menu when a resident pushes one of its foot’s bumpers. The other foot allows
the resident to hear the main news of the day. This simple application makes
both the residents and the caregivers very happy.
Autism Special Education
The
humanoid robot can engage children with applications designed for special
education. The NAO robot is especially suited to interact with autistic children
because the NAO robot is interactive and fun, engaging and captivating, and
adaptive to the needs of the classroom from individuals to groups. It is a
great help for teachers that really appreciate eliminating monotonous tasks.
The NAO robot has a pack of applications inspired by commonly practiced special
education teaching methods (ABA, PECS, TEACCH, DENVER, SCERTS) to unlock deeper
learning in the classroom. The applications are mult-educational and focus on
educational lessons, communication skills, and daily life knowledge. The
applications are structured to make children with disabilities comfortable and
confident and they can be adapted to individual motivators, internal states,
and personality to create the perfect match.
The NAO
robot is very predictable and reduces natural anxiety, its tireless features
repeat until a child understands, and it is judgment free which increases a
child’s confidence. NAO is able to bridge the human and technological worlds,
linking autistic children by encouraging social interaction, learning,
confidence, and self-esteem. The NAO robot is able to build the following
skills: time perception, imitation, theory of mind empathy, join attention,
turn-taking, academic skills, body awareness, verbal communication object labeling,
nonverbal communication, and eye contact.
Physical Therapy
Within the
Department of Rehabilitation at the University Hospital Ghent, the robot is
used to show what exercises a patient has to do, and with what number of
repetitions. The NAO robot installed with the Zora solution, is a small and
very mobile robot with a high feel-good factor, she gives repeated and verbal
instructions, supported by music and sound. It is just this combination that
encourages children and seniors to move and exercise. Custom exercise routines
for Parkinson’s Physical Therapy and Cerebral Palsy are two applications that
are currently being developed.
It is
exciting to be able to share some of these current use cases with you all.
Humanoid robots are already assisting in healthcare roles today!
For more
information:
ChartaCloud
Technologies
603-580-1088
