Expectations and perceptions of healthcare professionals for robotic deployment in hospital environments in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic

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Picture extracted from [1].
The latest outbreak of the extreme acute respiratory syndrome, brought on by coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), additionally known as COVID-19, has unfold globally in an unprecedented approach. In response, the efforts of most nations have been centered on containing and mitigating the consequences of the pandemic. Given the transmission charge of the virus, the World Well being Group (WHO) advisable a number of methods, resembling bodily distancing, to include the unfold and widespread transmission. Pushed by different components, together with the consequences of this pandemic on the financial system, some nations at the moment are resuming financial actions, making it all of the extra crucial to make sure compliance with bio-safety protocols to include additional unfold of the virus. So, the background to our challenge is that this various panorama of various public well being measures which can be having to be adopted all over the world, oftentimes with the measures being iteratively refined by the authorities as their impacts on the social, financial, and political sectors grow to be clearer.
Within the well being sector, all ranges and completely different stakeholders of the world’s well being programs have been unwaveringly centered on offering medical care throughout this pandemic. The calls for on the well being programs stay excessive regardless of the profitable rollouts of vaccination amongst many on this inhabitants throughout the globe. Quite a few challenges have arisen, resembling (1) the vulnerability and overloading of healthcare professionals, (2) the necessity for decongestion and discount within the threat of contagion in intra-hospital environments, (3) the provision of biomedical expertise, and (4) the sustainability of affected person care. As a consequence, a number of methods have been proposed to handle these challenges. As an illustration, robotics is a promising a part of the answer to assist management and mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19.
Though the literature has proven some robotics functions to have the ability to overcome the potential hazards and dangers in hospital environments, precise deployments of these developments are restricted. Curiously, few research measure the notion and the acceptance amongst clinicians of those robotics platforms. This work [1] presents the design and implementation of a number of notion questionnaires to evaluate healthcare suppliers’ degree of acceptance and consciousness of robotics for COVID-19 management in medical situations. The information of those outcomes can be found in a public repository. Particularly, 41 healthcare professionals (e.g., nurses, medical doctors, biomedical engineers, amongst others, from two personal healthcare establishments within the metropolis of Bogotá D.C., Colombia) accomplished the surveys, assessing three classes: (DIS) Disinfection and cleansing robots, (ASL) Help, Service, and Logistics robots, and (TEL) Telemedicine and Telepresence robots. The survey revealed that there’s usually a comparatively low degree of information about robotics functions among the many goal inhabitants. Likewise, the surveys revealed that some worry of being changed by robots very a lot stays within the medical neighborhood. Nonetheless, 82.9 % of contributors indicated a optimistic notion in regards to the growth and implementation of robotics in medical environments.
The outcomes confirmed that the healthcare workers expects these robots to work together inside hospital environments socially and talk with customers, connecting sufferers and medical doctors on this sense. Associated work [2] centered on Socially Assistive Robotics presents a possible instrument to help medical care areas, selling bodily distancing, and decreasing the contagion charge. The paper [2] presents a long-term analysis of a social robotic platform for gait neurorehabilitation.
The social robotic is situated in entrance of the affected person in the course of the train, guiding their efficiency by means of non-verbal and verbal gestures and monitoring physiological progress. Thus, the platform permits the bodily distancing between the clinicians and the affected person. A medical validation with ten sufferers throughout 15 classes was carried out in a rehabilitation middle situated in Colombia. Outcomes confirmed that the robotic’s help improves the sufferers’ physiological progress. It helped them to take care of a wholesome posture, evidenced of their thoracic and cervical posture. The notion and the acceptance have been additionally measured on this work, and Clinicians highlighted that they belief the system as a complementary instrument in rehabilitation.
Earlier research earlier than the pandemic confirmed that clinicians have been nervous about being changed by the robotic earlier than any actual interplay of their environments [3]. Contemplating the robotic’s function in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians have a optimistic notion of the robotic used as a instrument to handle the rehabilitation procedures. Most healthcare personnel will consent to make use of the robotic in the course of the pandemic, as they take into account this instrument can promote bodily distancing. It’s a safe machine to hold out the healthcare protocol. One other encouraging result’s that clinicians suggest the robotic to different colleagues and establishments to help rehabilitation in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
These works are funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering – Pandemic Preparedness (Grant EXPP202111183). This challenge goals to develop robotic methods in growing nations for monitoring non-safety circumstances associated to human behaviors and planning processes of disinfection of out of doors and indoor environments. This challenge configures a global cooperation community led by the Colombian Faculty of Engineering Julio Garavito, with main Investigator Carlos A. Cifuentes and the College of Edinburgh help by Professor Subramanian Ramamoorthy together with researchers and clinicians from Latin America (Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile).

Sierra, S., Gomez-Vargas, D., Cespedes, N., Munera, M., Roberti, F., Barria, P., Ramamoorthy, S., Becker, M., Carelli. R. Cifuentes, C.A. (2021) Expectations and Perceptions of Healthcare Professionals for Robotic Deployment in Hospital Environments in the course of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Frontiers in Robotics and AI.
Cespedes N., Raigoso, D., Munera, M., Cifuentes, C.A. (2021) Lengthy-Time period Social Human-Robotic Interplay for Neurorehabilitation: Robots as a instrument to help gait remedy within the Pandemic, Frontiers in Neurorobotics.
Casas, J. Cespedes, N., Cifuentes, C.A., Gutierrez, L., M., Rincon-Roncancio, Munera, M., (2019). Expectations vs Actuality: Attitudes In the direction of a Socially Assistive Robotic in Cardiac Rehabilitation. Appl. Sci, 9(21), 4651.

tags: c-Analysis-Innovation

Carlos A. Cifuentes
is an Assistant Professor with the Division of Biomedical Engineering and Head of Heart for Biomechatronics at Colombian Faculty of Engineering Julio Garavito

Carlos A. Cifuentes
is an Assistant Professor with the Division of Biomedical Engineering and Head of Heart for Biomechatronics at Colombian Faculty of Engineering Julio Garavito

Marcela Múnera
is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical engineering at Colombian Faculty of Engineering Julio Garavito

Marcela Múnera
is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical engineering at Colombian Faculty of Engineering Julio Garavito

Subramanian Ramamoorthy
is a Professor of Robotic Studying and Autonomy at College of Edinburgh | Director of Institute of Notion, Motion and Behaviour | Scientific Advisor at 5

Subramanian Ramamoorthy
is a Professor of Robotic Studying and Autonomy at College of Edinburgh | Director of Institute of Notion, Motion and Behaviour | Scientific Advisor at 5

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