Humanoid robot assessing ‘patients’ in Australian hospital study
HOBART: Tasmania’s NorthWest Regional Hospital is conducting research into whether participants would accept and trust a robot in a care provider role.
About 70 healthcare professionals are posing as patients for the study with the robot dubbed Dr NAO, ABC News reported.
Principal researcher Dr Balaji Bikshandi said Dr NAO has been specially programmed to act as a doctor.
“We programmed him to emulate and learn the basics of medical interaction in a short period of time,” Dr Bikshandi said.
“We have made him undergo a medical exam with a patient.”
It is still early in the trial, but so far Dr NAO is asking patients to do simple tests like breathing and physiotherapy exercises.
“The unique feature of NAO is the ability to show emotion and engage with humans,” he said.
“We’ve asked doctors and nurses to come and interact with him and then evaluate him.”
Intensive care nurse unit manager Trudy Segger said the research would give an idea of how a humanoid robot could interact with patients.
“Even though he’s a robot, I’ve bonded with him,” she said.
“They could certainly help us and assist us. We can see lots of potential for use in the clinical setting.
“We’ve got a long way to go but I think he’ll be the way of the future.”
Dr Bikshandi said it could be a while before robots like Dr NAO would complement the role of medical professionals in the workplace.
“Dr NAO is still in the research phase, so I would say we’re looking a few years away at least,” he said.
It is the first time a humanoid robot has been used to support health research in Australia.
Robots are already used in some nursing homes and dementia care facilities in Australia.