Robotics in Healthcare

Constant advancements in technology have influenced the ways humans use robotics in healthcare. One of the most common applications for robotics in healthcare is using robots for minimally invasive surgeries. Yet, numerous other robotic applications—including caregiving and supply stocking—have changed healthcare around the world. As medical professionals, hospitals, and individuals rely more on robots to complete healthcare-related tasks, people have to grapple with more ethical, monetary, and technological concerns. The use of robotics in healthcare will likely increase over time, especially as a growing population strains current healthcare systems. Robotics are quickly changing the way medical professionals do their jobs and the way patients receive care.

Background

Although researchers disagree about the exact definition of a robot, a general consensus is that a robot is a physically embodied machine that has intelligence and some ability to perform tasks autonomously. Before humans had the technology to create working robots, they imagined having mechanical assistants that could relieve humans of some of their workload. The twentieth century saw the invention of the first computers and the development of artificial intelligence. In the 1960s, a company called SRI International developed a robot called Shakey, which was most likely the first machine to fit the modern definition of a robot. Soon afterward, researchers created other types of robots, including robotic arms. People used robotic arms, which could move and lift heavy objects, in factories and manufacturing. These arms also became important in laboratories, including medical laboratories. Such machines could move samples and perform other simple functions. These were the first robots to be involved in any part of the medical field. Robotics continued to advance, although the development of useful, high-quality robots took many decades. In the 1990s, the first robots were used in surgery with a robot that guided traditional surgical tools, allowing surgeons to be more precise. In 2000, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the robotic operating system called da Vinci, which was a large, multipart system used by surgeons. This system helped make robotic surgery even more popular. The early decades of the 2000s brought new advancements that would expand the use of robotics throughout the healthcare industry.

Overview

Robots are used in medicine and healthcare for many different reasons. Robots used for surgery are among the most common. However, the robots used in surgery are not performing the actions alone. A surgeon still performs the surgery via hand-held controls that allow the surgeon to move the robotic parts. Robotic surgery has a number of benefits. One of the most important benefits is that that type of surgery is less invasive than open surgery (surgery during which a large incision is made and surgeons use cutting tools to perform the surgical functions). It is also sometimes less invasive than laparoscopic surgery (surgery conducted with small tools and a camera). Minimally invasive surgery can create better patient outcomes because it can help reduce the length of surgery, complications, patient pain, rates of infection, and recuperation times. Robotic surgery can also help doctors perform surgeries in difficult-to-reach areas where they might not have been able to operate in the past.

Modern robots used in surgery are often robotic systems with three parts. The surgeon conducts most of the surgery at the console, a large machine that controls the instruments, which are in a different part of the surgery system. The surgeon has a large screen to view the surgery as it takes place. The surgeon uses two hand-held controls to move the instruments while watching the screen. The surgeon sits at the console, away from the patient, and conducts the surgery. Sometimes surgeons can control parts of the robotic system with pedals they operate with their feet. The patient cart is the second piece of the system. The cart is located at the site of the patient. The cart holds cameras and the robotic pieces that actually perform the surgical functions. This part of the system responds to the surgeon’s movements at the console. The third piece of the system is the vision cart. This piece of the system facilitates communication between the other two pieces of the system. It is located between the two other pieces to make communication possible.

Surgeons use the robotic operating system in numerous different situations. Surgery systems can be used to do cardiac surgeries. Traditional open-heart surgery is very invasive, requiring a long recovery and risking numerous complications. Minimally invasive cardiac surgeries can help reduce recovery times and the risk of complications. Hysterectomies and some other gynecological surgeries can sometimes be performed by robotic surgery. Doctors can repair hernias with minimally invasive surgery. Doctors can also use robotic surgery systems to conduct colorectal, head and neck, and thoracic surgeries. In the future, more surgeries will likely take place with robotic surgery systems.

Although robotic systems for surgery have become some of the best-known uses for robotics in healthcare, they are not alone. Researchers have developed many more robots and robotic systems to use in healthcare. A number of types of robots perform functions that can help humans conduct everyday tasks that support healthcare but are not actually healthcare functions. For example, some robots clean or disinfect. Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are a serious threat to public health, and keeping facilities clean and sanitized is one of the biggest priorities and challenges in the field. Robots can help perform this function. One robot, called Xenex, uses full-spectrum UV rays to kill microbes, including drug-resistant bacteria. The robot can disinfect a room in a matter of minutes.

Other robots move products—including food, drugs, and supplies—around a hospital or healthcare facility. Nurses and other workers inside healthcare facilities spend much time getting patients food, blankets, drinks, and other items to make them comfortable and care for them. Robots can reduce the work humans need to do to complete these tasks. A nurse could request a particular product, such as a blanket, and have the robot deliver it. The nurse can reduce trips away from patients, increasing patient-facing time. Robots can also deliver meals and even drugs to patients. Robots that carry drugs are designed so they will open only when they arrive at a particular location, and they are locked so people cannot access the medication before it arrives at its destination.

The robots that are made to run errands, clean rooms, and do other tasks in healthcare settings have specific designs that help them function. For example, the Tug robot transports food, drugs, and other items in hospitals. It was designed to make minimal sounds as to not annoy patients or workers. This robot also has special cameras and sensors that help in avoiding obstacles, including humans walking around the hospital.

Other groups of robots help care for patients. These robots do not provide direct care. Instead, they help patients communicate with medical professionals, stay connected to the outside world, support mood and mental health, and more. These types of robots have become very popular in eldercare settings. The world’s population is aging. Many countries face shortages of medical professionals to care for the elderly. Humans are living longer, but many face health disorders that can impair them physically or mentally. One famous robot is called Paro, and it is meant to help patients with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The robot is in the form of a stuffed seal. It blinks, makes facial expressions, and makes sounds. The robot helps soothe patients, giving them something to pet, talk to, and focus on. Some robots also help the elderly or other patients with their doctors, their families, and the outside world. Some robots have screens that connect patients with their loved ones for video calls. Other robots remind patients to do important tasks, such as taking medication at certain times or contacting a particular doctor.

Medical professionals can also use robots as part of a patient’s treatment. For example, robotic exoskeletons have been used in limited capacities to help people move body parts and even walk after an accident or illness damaged part of the body. Robotic exoskeletons are extremely powerful and can help people walk more effectively than traditional walking aids, such as canes, crutches, or walkers. These robotic technologies are still in the early stages, but researchers hope they will help people become and remain mobile.

A positive aspect of using robots in healthcare settings is that robots cannot contract infectious diseases from patients. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) that helps reduce the rates of infection in healthcare workers. Technology advocates pointed out that increasing the number of robots in healthcare settings could help conserve PPE and could help prevent infectious diseases from spreading to as many people.

Although robots have made elements of healthcare easier or more successful, people still face ethical questions about the use of robots in medicine and healthcare. One ethical question relates to allowing robots to perform tasks that they could mismanage. Robots usually perform their tasks correctly, but one incorrect piece of code or even an incorrect input from a human could cause a robot to make a mistake. Studies show that robots actually reduce the number of mistakes made in healthcare, but humans have to decide if they comfortable with robots, not humans, making mistakes. Another ethical question is when it is proper to have a robot interact with human patients instead of other humans interacting with the patients. For example, humans have to decide if the elderly or even the dying should be comforted by robots or if only actual humans should play that role. Ideas about how humans interact with robots have created their own field of study called human-robot interactions, and people in that field consider such questions.

Another ethical question about robots faces the entire field of robotics. Robots are taking the place of humans, reducing the number of available jobs. Robots and AI will someday have the ability to complete many more human tasks. Humans could, and experts believe likely will, someday develop robots that are more intelligent than human beings. Humans have to consider if they should create technology that they could eventually lose control over.

Humans have changed and developed the ways they use robotics in healthcare, and people will continue to create new robots and find new applications for those that already exist. Currently, robots do not dispense treatment or perform medical procedures. They are currently used to augment or support the healthcare that humans provide. In the future, however, robots will continue to become more intelligent and capable. It is likely that one day humans will develop robots that could perform surgeries more skillfully than humans. Robots could also start to take the place of nurses, phlebotomists, and other health professionals for reading vital signs, taking blood samples, and more. Robots could also collect information from patients in areas with fewer doctors, allowing patients to receive information about potentially critical diagnoses (e.g., heart attack or stroke) without having to see a doctor.

Nanotechnology is a technology that is developed at the atomic or molecular level, making the technology so small that it potentially be used inside the body. Scientists could use nanotechnology to make robots that could go inside the human body and heal them. This could greatly reduce the number of patients who undergo surgery.

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