What are future applications of social robots in healthcare?5 answersFuture applications of social robots in healthcare include assisting in treatment and rehabilitation of various diseases like social anxiety, dementia, autism spectrum disorder, depression, Alzheimer's disease, anorexia nervosa, neurodevelopmental issues, cancer, diabetes, and upper limb rehabilitation after stroke. Socially assistive robots (SARs) can be integrated into Digital Health (DH) systems to provide remote monitoring of patients' behaviors, activity patterns, and health status, contributing to a broader understanding of patient health outcomes. Additionally, social robots have the potential to explain medical tests and procedures to patients in various settings such as general practitioner offices, hospitals, nursery homes, and public spaces, enhancing patient understanding and experience. These robots can also play roles in psychological therapy, patient monitoring, physical exercise promotion, and medication adherence in healthcare settings.
What are the main application scenario of social robots in healthcare?4 answersSocial robots in healthcare have diverse applications, including patient-facing roles like receptionists, providing assistance, entertainment, companionship, telepresence, monitoring, rehabilitation, and psychological therapy. These robots can greet visitors, check-in patients, answer questions, guide individuals, provide directions, and even assist in locating objects. Additionally, they can explain medical tests and procedures to patients in waiting rooms, nursery homes, and public spaces, enhancing clarity and understanding. The deployment of socially assistive robots (SARs) in real healthcare settings is increasing, with functions ranging from entertainment to disinfection, showcasing the versatility and potential impact of these robots in alleviating staff workload and enhancing patient care.
Which functions do social robots serve in healthcare?5 answersSocial robots in healthcare serve a variety of functions, including entertainment, companionship, telepresence, providing information or advice, monitoring, promoting physical exercise and rehabilitation, testing and pre-diagnosis, delivering supplies, patient registration, giving location indications, psychological therapy, interacting with digital devices, disinfection, and more. They can also explain medical tests and procedures to patients, contributing to better understanding and clarity in healthcare settings. Additionally, social robots can take on patient-facing roles like acting as robot receptionists, assisting visitors, checking in/out patients, answering questions, providing directions, and guiding individuals within healthcare facilities. These diverse functions showcase the potential of social robots to enhance various aspects of healthcare delivery.
What is the current market from social robots in healthcare like?6 answersThe current market for social robots in healthcare is experiencing a significant expansion, driven by the Industrial Revolution 4.0, which has ushered in innovative possibilities for employing artificial intelligence and computer-guided devices in rehabilitation and treatment for a wide range of diseases including social anxiety, dementia, autism spectrum disorder, depression, Alzheimer's disease, and more. Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) are increasingly being deployed across various healthcare settings, including hospitals, elderly care centers, and private homes, performing functions such as entertainment, companionship, telepresence, and rehabilitation, among others. These robots are designed to interact with humans in a human-centric environment, mimicking human social behaviors such as speech, movements, and facial expressions to facilitate rich interaction capabilities.
Despite the technological and political visions promoting the use of social robots to address the care crisis exacerbated by demographic changes, there remains a gap between the envisioned role of robots as care providers and their actual implementation, which is currently more instrumental and limited to specific tasks rather than substituting human caregivers entirely. The integration of Artificial Intelligence-driven Digital Health (DH) systems, including socially assistive robots, is recognized as a critical component in the future of healthcare, offering the potential to support individuals with various health conditions through data-driven interventions. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance of robots in healthcare, emphasizing their role in maintaining social distance and protecting frontline personnel from virus exposure.
Efforts to make robotics technology more accessible to non-experts through the development of new middleware indicate a move towards broader adoption and customization of healthcare use cases for robots. However, challenges remain in terms of functionality, robustness, and the acceptability of social robots in healthcare, with ongoing research needed to address these issues and fully realize their potential. Moreover, as the era of industrial revolution 5.0 progresses, robots with cyber inter-physical functionalities are beginning to find applications in healthcare, assisting with tasks such as taking vitals and sanitization, thereby reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission among healthcare workers.
Which new social robots in healthcare do exist?5 answersNew social robots in healthcare include Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) like EVA, which have been extended for multimodal interaction and light sensory effects in healthcare therapies. Additionally, there are developments in creating Social Conversational Robots for patient-facing roles such as robot receptionists in healthcare settings, aiding in tasks like greeting visitors, check-in/out of patients, answering questions, guiding individuals, and providing directions. Moreover, a project aims to develop a social robot to assist children during medical procedures using epistemic planning techniques for autonomous interaction with children, parents, and healthcare professionals in clinical settings, incorporating co-design techniques and clinical trials for evaluation. These advancements showcase the diverse applications of social robots in enhancing healthcare services.
What are the applications of robots in the healthcare field?4 answersRobots have various applications in the healthcare field. They can be used for tasks such as reducing workloads, managing appointments, patient scheduling, managing claims, automating medical claims, invoice processing, healthcare inventory management, personalized healthcare, automation in the contact center, and management of the treatment cycle. Additionally, robots can assist with surgery, streamline hospital logistics, conduct routine checkups, ensure exclusive patient care, provide safe working conditions for healthcare providers, and organize operational tasks. Socially assistive robots (SARs) are deployed in healthcare settings for functions like entertainment, companionship, telepresence, edutainment, monitoring, promoting physical exercise and rehabilitation, testing and pre-diagnosis, delivering supplies, patient registration, and more. Furthermore, robots can be multifunctional, performing tasks such as receptionist duties, entertainment, nursing, cleaning, and delivery. Autonomous robots can also be developed to dispense medications to individual patients in healthcare facilities.