Robots for Healthcare
Technology is changing the world rapidly and it’s beginning to be employed in almost every part of our lives. It shouldn’t be a surprise to know that even in our healthcare industry, technology is also taking over. What technology does in the healthcare industry is that it makes life easier for both doctors and their patients.
Thanks to the advancement in technology itself, there are now AIs and robots that help healthcare facilities perform better and even give hope to those patients who had lost hope. In this article, we will look at the 10 best robots for healthcare.
10. Robotic Nurses
Coming on the number ten spot is this awesome robot called the robotic nurse. One thing for sure that we know is that nurses (humans) are great, always there to assist the doctor and keep the hospital running no matter what. Also, nurses aren’t so much and they are usually over-laboured because of the amount of work they have to do in the hospital. Thanks to this robotic nurse, things are now much easier. For now, these robotic nurses are programmed to do little work in the hospital, but no matter how little, they can ease these nurses of those jobs. However, some examples of work they can perform include filling out some digital paper works, check-in in on how a patient is doing, moving those metal carts from room to room, etc. They help keep the hospital running and even sort of making the hospital a little more lively.
9. Telepresence Robot Surrogates
This is like a communication robot. You might have seen it in a cartoon or a TV show that is trying to portray the future. Well, the future is now because these robots exist. They are designed in this way – their head has the screen of an iPad or a screen at least, their body is like a fat standing fan, and then it has wheels to move around.
Thanks to this telepresence robot surrogate, it is possible for doctors from different regions to communicate with each other seamlessly. Not like this wasn’t possible before, but the thing is that the robot makes it look like the doctor is there. Standing and talking with either a doctor or patient. One can easily run diagnosis in the presence of these robots.
8. Companion Bots
Think of a buddy, but this time a robot buddy. We’re sure you’re wondering how a robot buddy is important to your health, but it is. Besides being your buddy, it can be of great assistance to you. These robots have incredible importance in healthcare, think about those elderly people who can’t do certain things themselves, this robot is an assistant that can help them with certain or most tasks. Also for those patients who are mentally affected and have been led to choose loneliness, this robot can help them to feel around people. In due time, they will be able to cooperate. One important feature of this companion bot is that you’re sure an ambulance will get to you if anything happens because it can call the nearest ambulance once it sees you’ve collapsed or you feel pale.
7. Clinical Training Bots
Before the invention of this, surgeons have been either gaining knowledge on the job or making use of caravans. This is an invention that is meant to train surgeons on how to carry out operations on real beings. They have all the organs (not real) in the human body that helps the trainee to learn how to carry out operations. This is a very handy bot in the medical field used to train and improve the skills of surgeons.
6. Disinfectant Bots
Ever wondered why hospitals have cleaners that clean the floors, almost every minute? Well, it’s because whether you believe it or not, hospitals have a high number of microorganisms. Not like the whole surrounding isn’t. Think about it, have you ever been to a hospital to treat an illness and then return home with a new one? It’s because of the harmful microorganisms that exist in the hospital. That’s where these magnificent bots come in.
The good thing about these bots is that they move around the hospital on their own. You’re probably wondering how they disinfect the whole hospital. Immediately a patient leaves the hospital room they were in, this robot exposes a ray with heat that kills all the microorganisms in the room. Having one of these is a great way to get your hospital rid of germs.
5. Targetted Micro-therapy Robots
This kind of medical robot is quite promising, despite its youth. In essence, they employ mechanical near-microscopic particles to deliver medicine or other therapy locally to a predetermined target region within the body.
This might be used to confine the treatment to the required organ, so limiting its negative effects, or to administer radiation directly to a tumour.
The particles’ path to the target, though, is what’s intriguing in this situation. Other approaches might be used, but recent research has focused on using micro-bots with tiny, helical tails that can be guided by magnetic fields to spin through blood arteries to a precise location in the body. Pretty cool!
4. Orthoses
Orthoses serve as an exoskeleton for those who seem to have lost the ability to walk. With orthoses, the dream of being able to walk is now visible to those who were paralyzed due to an accident. However, the technology is still a bit backward, since they need some impulse from the person’s body. However, some improvements are being done to it, so that in a matter of time, it is connected to the neuro senses, and movement of the exoskeleton will be possible with the mind. Besides making it possible for movement to be feasible for paralyzed patients, this exoskeleton can correct the posture of an individual, if you have a terrible posture, this is used by medical agents to help correct their patient’s internal bone structure.
3. Endoscopy-Bot
During an endoscopy, a small camera attached to a long wire is inserted into the body through a “natural opening” to look for damage, foreign bodies, or signs of disease. This is a delicate and uncomfortable process that can eventually become obsolete.
Companies such as Medineering are developing new procedures that use slim, flexible robots that, like remote-controlled vehicles, can be steered exactly where doctors want them.
There, it holds position without the tremor of human hands, and a variety of devices can be used, from biopsy to cauterization of lesions.
Even more surprising is the so-called “capsule endoscopy”. Capsule endoscopy simply involves a pill-sized robot walking through the digestive tract, gathering information, taking pictures, and sending them to a processor for diagnosis.
2. Actuated and Sensory Prostheses
Sensory Prostheses are not a new thing. We’ve seen it in cartoons – humans with robot hands, becoming superheroes. However, this is not the same thing. Prostheses as itself is not a new thing, it has been used for quite some time now. Formally, used to be in plastic, used to replace the arms or limbs of patients who lost their body parts because of an accident or one disease. The thing about plastic prostheses is that they are just simply there, you can’t move them. These days, with the improvement of technology, and biotech, there are now sensory prostheses that allow the patient to be able to move the arm or limb like they would if it was their real arm or limb.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Biomechatronics Lab have developed gyroscopic robotic limbs that can track their position in three dimensions and move joints up to 750 times per second.
Additionally, we have developed a bionic skin and neural implant system that communicates with the nervous system, allowing the user to feel the prosthetic leg and control it freely like a normal limb.
Nearly two million amputees in the United States alone will soon experience greater euphoria from this breakthrough in human-machine fusion.
1. Da Vinci
Taking the lead for the top 10 robots for healthcare is the Da Vinci system. This one might be strange to a lot of people, so what is this mysterious bot? The distinction between “robots” and “medical tools” is blurred by this technology, as the surgeon always has full control, but the breakthroughs it enables are amazing.
With the help of the DaVinci System, certain procedures can be performed with the smallest incisions and the highest level of precision, resulting in less bleeding, faster healing and a lower risk of infection.
If you must know, the Da Vinci system has been around for quite a while now, and improvements continue to be made to it to make sure that its functions continue to get better as time progresses.
Conclusion
The Da Vinci system brings an end to our list, but we’re sure from the list, you have seen that all of these bots are quite important in the health sector. They help everyone in the hospital – Doctors, scrubs, nurses, patients, cleaners, etc. have better hospital relationships. These bots are surely something you should consider adding to your list of next equipment to get into your hospital.
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