Robots were looked as a competition to human workforce. They were most criticized due to fear people had that this technology might ruin their jobs. However, the same robots are now used as a most handy tool while giving care to patients suffering from COVID-19 infection. A provisional hospital in Wuhan was the first to take help of robots to offer treatment for COVID-19 patients. A team of robots was strategically used when the city was dealing with the outbreak of this infectious disease.
CloudMinds is the company that manufactured robot assisting in patient care. These robots were efficient in taking temperatures, serving meals, and communicating with patients during coronavirus epidemic. While speaking about this humanoid robot, CloudMinds’ president Karl Zhao stated, “These robots successfully run the smart field hospital. It offered useful data, entertainment with dancing, conversational engagement, and even helped patients in stretching exercises.”
A medical team of few members was remotely handling the field hospital robots. All COVID-19 patients were asked to use wristbands. This helped robots to collect all vital patient data including blood pressure. These patients were given care in the smart clinic for a limited time. However, this highlighted the potential use of robots in offering medical help to patients dealing with transmissible diseases. This will probably help in containing the disease transmission in health care workers, as they will be able to manage safe distances from patients.
Some parts of countries like Thailand and Israel demonstrate a glimpse of future use of robots. Here, patients have to meet with robots and doctors offer consultation through videoconference. Going one step further, some consultation robots can perform the classic checkup part of listening to patients’ lungs as they breathe.
One more instance of robots use is in Alexandra Hospital, Singapore. The hospital is expected to take help of robot named BeamPro for giving care to COVID-19 patients as well as to suspected patients in isolation wards. These robots will perform the tasks of medicine and meals delivery.
