Final Assignment – The Use of Robots in Home Health Care

Throughout this course, we’ve explored new and exciting changes in the doctor-patient relationship as a result of emerging Internet technologies. We’ve learned that changes in the doctor-patient relationship are occurring and will continue to evolve as the Internet grows and enables consumers to access healthcare information to become more informed and participate fully in their overall healthcare needs. Care providers will have increased access to a patient’s comprehensive online medical record and will work in concert with other care providers to provide a team-based approach to a patient’s overall health and well-being. We know that the Internet and associated technologies will continue to advance and provide the infrastructure required to leverage new care practices, such as employing global teams and expanding home based care. As these technologies advance and the use and acceptance of telemedicine increases, the possibility of using advanced robotics technologies in the use of home based health will become a reality. As in many of the sci-fi movies, such as “I Robot,” personal robots will be as common in the home as pets and will be considered as extensions of the traditional family.

The use of assistive robots in health care settings is seen as one of the most important applications of robotics (Nejat, G., et.al. 2009) with numerous possibilities to explore. Currently, robots are primarily being used in health care organizations to perform functions, such as packaging and drug dispensing; some medical and surgical procedures; training tools for new care providers; tele-surgery and tele-consultation; and research and development. Extending the use of robots in home settings is a logical step in the evolution of health care.

The use of robotics and Internet technologies will ultimately enable us to reach a point where it will one day be possible for people to own robots and use them for a wide range of areas, with health care needs being a primary reason for many people.

Robots Can Help Patients Recover From Surgery
Patients recovering from heart bypass surgery can have their personal robot monitor their vital signs, such as heart rate and blood pressure. Connected to the Internet, the robot could upload the data directly to the patient’s electronic medical record, where a human doctor can review online. The robot could even notify the human doctor of potential issues, perhaps by sending an electronic message directly to the human doctor’s smart phone.

Robots Can Support Patients with Cognitive Disabilities
Alzheimer’s patients often forget to maintain their medication schedules. Personal robots can remind their patients when it’s time for their next dosage. They may ultimately interact with their patient to confirm medications were taken and track them electronically. The use of robots may enable a cognitively-impaired individual to live on their own, instead of being institutionalized. In other cases, robots may prolong a person’s ability to function without outside assistance. For example, a robot can monitor common signs or behaviors to determine if the patient’s ability to live on their own is degrading over time.

Robots Can Provide Physical Therapy Services
Robots are well-suited to perform repetitive tasks often required by physical rehabilitation therapists. Unlike humans, robots will not tire of performing these actions.

Robots Can Assist Elderly People
Robots will be able to assist elderly people in a wide range of personal assistant tasks, such as assisting them in walking, reaching for items beyond their reach, and keeping them company by “reading” to them. Perhaps one day, robots will be able to drive you to your next doctor’s appointment.

Robots Can Assist Patients in Conducting Internet Research
Robots will have the ability to conduct Internet searches for their patients. Rather than spend time mining the Internet themselves, patients will be able to leverage their robots to search for the latest research and medical advances potentially relevant to their particular health care issues. The robot could present the information to them and make recommendations on whether the information should be shared with their human care provider. In some cases, perhaps the robot could share the information directly with the care provider as well. This potential use may result in the robot become an active member of the care provider team!

Robots Can Facilitate Human Doctor-Patient Interaction
Robots can be designed with on-board video and remote control equipment to simulate a “live” doctor visit. A patient’s care provider could take control of the robot to conduct a “remote” visit with them, perhaps to complete additional tests, check the patient’s improvement, etc. Using the robot, the human doctor could provide a level of care beyond a typical tele-visit.

Much research is still needed to achieve the use of robots on a mass scale, especially to develop a robot that would be accepted by the masses. However, work is already underway to research human interaction behaviors required to design “socially acceptable” robots on a mass scale. For example, researchers at Carnegie Mellon have developed the Snackbot (Slomski, A. 2009), a robot used to study long-term human-robot interaction and have described their methodology and design considerations (Lee, et.al. 2009). As this research area expands, it will be critical that researchers partner with care providers to ensure robots are designed to instill a level of trust in robots to provide highly personal health care to patients.

This course has taught us that consumers of all ages are using Internet technologies in their daily lives, especially to address their health concerns. Millions are already comfortable with integrating technology into their daily lives and comfort levels are increasing. And as telemedicine continues to move care delivery from the hospital or clinic setting into the home, patients will perceive the use of robots as a natural extension. This will speed the transition, use and acceptance of robots to support health care in home environments. In addition, in the U.S., there is a constant shortage of home health care providers; robots may one day provide a much-needed supply of these types of care givers.

In the future, science and technology will make it possible for robots to provide a number of home health care services. From a long term perspective, these advancements may well usher in new paradigms and fundamentally change the way health care is delivered. Research is currently underway to advance the field of robotics, but much more research is necessary. I hope to see the beginnings of this become reality in my lifetime, although chances are probably not on a mass scale. Will robots replace human care providers one day? Perhaps…but not in my lifetime!

References

Lee, M. K., Forlizzi, J., Rybski, P.E., Crabbe, F., Chung, W., Finkle, J., Glaser, E., & Kiesler, S. (2009). The Snackbot: Documenting the Design of a Robot for Long-Term Human-Robot Interaction. Proceedings of 4th Annual Human-Robot Interaction 2009,
Nejat, G., Sun, Y., & Nies, M. (2009). Assistive Robots in Health Care Settings. Home Health Care Management & Practice, 21, 177-187.

Slomski, A. (Winter 2009). The Sociable Robot. Proto, 29-33.