Robotics applied to healthcare

Did you know that there are robots that can perform surgical interventions or that give support to sick, disabled or elderly people? Or that there are smart prosthetics and artificial bionic organs that can replace a person's organ? There is no doubt that robotics applied to healthcare It has made considerable progress in recent years.

Surgical robots

Robotics applied to medical care is used in various specialties, especially in the. A good example of this is the da Vinci system, the most perfect surgical equipment that exists.

Is less invasive, offers a spectacularly clear view of the patient's anatomy, operates with millimeter precision and avoids the inevitable tremors of the human hand.

In addition, it allows easier access to the most delicate areas causing a less tissue damage.

Like the Da Vinci system, surgical robotics take advantage of the natural cavities of the human body (such as the navel) to access the interior and perform the intervention, thus reducing the risk of bleeding as well as the complications that may arise in the postoperative period.

The use of these robots has obtained very good results in surgeries such as liver, pancreas, endocrine glands, bariatric, gynecological, urology, cancer of the esophagus or rectum, etc.

Robots that streamline medical care

Robotics has also been put at the service of doctors who work on the front line through systems that facilitate and streamline their daily work. An example is Spot, a quadruped automaton designed by the Boston Dynamics company and which has been a excellent help in the harshest months of the.

The robot was first used in the medical field at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts, United States, to assist in the initial evaluations of patients with COVID.

Spot can move easily around the hospital, walking up and down stairs thanks to its four legs, and makes it easy for doctors to follow their patients by videoconference through your front iPad, with what is reduce significantly the contagion risk.

Robots that collect vital patient information

We are used to seeing how nurses and technicians visit patient rooms from time to time to collect information such as body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. But this task has also been entrusted to robotics for healthcare.

At each round, the healthcare providers take note of the data and enter it into the electronic clinical records. A task that is not exempt from errors.

For this reason, more and more hospitals in the world are making use of different machines that are capable of measure the vital signs of each patient, and not several times a day, but Continuously 24 hours a day, which allows a more global and instantaneous vision to be obtained.

In addition, the data is automated in the registry immediately and, in case of detecting an anomaly in the patient, notifications are sent in real time.

The Spot robot is one of those capable of collecting vital signs from patients.

Nurse robots

Robotics applied to the consists of machines that complement the activity of doctors and health workers. However, a project by the Dutch Bright Cape has opened the debate on the possibility that machines can replace people in the medical field.

The automaton, baptized with the name of SARA (for the acronym of) and that bears a great resemblance to EVA (the robot from the Disney movie), has been designed to improve the well-being of residents in a healthcare setting and reduce the workload of nurses.

Among other things, you can accompany and tell stories to the elderly, notify the nurses if there is something wrong, help patients exercise, etc. But what differentiates it from other robots of its kind is that SARA is an android fully autonomous based on .

Assistive robots

Another example of robotics for medical care are assistive robots: those whose function is to provide support and assistance to the elderly, sick or with a disability, such as personal assistants, smart walkers, medication administrators ... etc. In we tell you more about these robots.