In the age of social distancing, using robots for some health care interactions is a promising way to reduce in-person contact between health care workers and sick patients. However, a key question is how patients will react to a robot entering the room. Researchers from MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital recently set out to answer that question.
In a study, the team found that a large majority of patients reported that interacting with a health care provider through a video screen fixed on a robot was similar to an in-person interaction with a health care worker.
"We're working on robots that can help provide care to ensure the safety of the patient and the health care workforce. The results of this study give us some confidence that people are ready and willing to join us. In a larger online survey carried out nationwide, we also found that a majority of respondents were open to having robots perform small tasks such as taking a nose swab (拭子)." says Giovanni Traverso, an MIT assistant professor and the senior author of the study.
After the COVID-19 pandemic began early last year, Traverso and his colleagues turned their attention toward new strategies to reduce interactions between potentially sick patients and health care workers. To that end, they created a mobile robot that could interact with patients as they waited in the emergency department. The robots were equipped with sensors that allow them to measure vital signs, including skin temperature, breathing rate, and pulse(脉搏) rate. The robots also carried an iPad for remote video communication with a health care provider.
The study suggests that it could be worthwhile to develop robots that can perform tasks that currently require a lot of human effort, such as turning a patient over in bed. These days, turning COVID-19 patients onto their stomachs requires several people. Doing Covid-19 tests is another task that takes a lot of time and effort from health care workers, who could be arranged for other tasks if robots could help.
