Robots in Madical

As a result, a wide range of robots is being developed to serve in a variety of roles within the medical environment. Robots specializing in human treatment include surgical robots and rehabilitation robots. The field of assistive and therapeutic robotic devices is also expanding rapidly.

                           

As a result, a wide range of robots is being developed to serve in a variety of roles within the medical environment. Robots specializing in human treatment include surgical robots and rehabilitation robots. The field of assistive and therapeutic robotic devices is also expanding rapidly. These include robots that help patients rehabilitate from serious conditions like strokes, emphatic robots that assist in the care of older or physically/mentally challenged individuals, and industrial robots that take on a variety of routine tasks, such as sterilizing rooms and delivering medical supplies and equipment, including medications.

5 Medical Robots making a difference in Healthcare

There are good reasons for engineers to develop medical robots for use in healthcare. Unlike human beings, robots are tireless, and their "hands" never shake. They can perform precise movements even beyond the human range of motion and be present with patients for as long as necessary. Plus, they can automate lower-level or repetitive tasks and leave the high-level work to humans.

Here are five recently developed robots currently being implemented in hospitals and treatment centers to improve quality of care and patient outcomes.

1. The da Vinci® Surgical Robot

It is unthinkable, but true: More than 250,000 people die in the U.S. each year from medical errors, some of which are likely preventable.1 While this is a broad category encompassing a range of different problems, it's certainly true that the more control surgeons have in their operations, the better. The da Vinci Surgical System, a multi-armed wonder bot, is being used to reduce surgical errors and make surgery less invasive for thousands of patients.

2. The Xenex Germ-Zapping Robot

Along with minimizing medical and surgical errors, hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are another widespread problem in healthcare that could be improved with robots. The CDC reported that there were 722,000 HAIs in U.S. acute care hospitals in 2011.3 HAIs often occur because hospitals can't always clean rooms with 100 percent sterility between patients, whether due to time constraints or the simple invisibility of germs. Whatever the reason, patients who are already immuno compromised are more susceptible to bacterial infection.

3. The PARO Therapeutic Robot

Unlike the first two robots, this one is not designed to save lives per se, but to improve quality of life during recovery from surgery or treatment for depression or other mental illness. The PARO Therapeutic Robot is an interactive device that looks like a baby harbor seal and is designed to provide the benefits of animal therapy without relying on live animals. Animal therapy is a common tool for easing patient stress, but there are not always trained animals available to satisfy current need. Friendly, animal-like PARO fits the bill.

4. The Cyber Knife

The Cyberknife is a robotic surgery system that delivers radiation therapy to tumors with sub-millimeter precision.5 Invented in the 1990s, the Cyber Knife system is now being used to treat cancer at hospitals and treatment centers all over the U.S. Not a knife per se, the system is a radiation source mounted on a robot, which allows for a targeted beam of radiotherapy that maneuvers and adapts quickly. It can deliver radiation to a tumor (malignant or benign), repositioning itself at many minutely different angles to target the tumor from all sides without having to reposition the patient.

5. The TUG

You may never think about it, but transporting supplies, meals and other materials around the hospital is a drag on efficiency. One estimate shows that a typical 200-bed hospital moves meals, linens, lab samples, waste and other items the equivalent of 53 miles per day.7 Enter TUG, an autonomous mobile robot developed by Aethon Inc. to ferry supplies to where they are needed, freeing employees from heavy physical loads and allowing them to focus on patient care.