Robot helpers that do work of three staff on wards soon
▶ Visitors to Arab Health 2024 expo in Dubai meet the machines designed to let humans get on with job of healing
Hospital patients in the UAE could soon have their meals delivered to them by robots in an effort to reduce labour intensive duties on wards.
The Camello+ robot can deliver medication, on-demand meals, laundry and surgical tools, as well as dispose of medical waste.
It is designed to support the health care sector by making the running of clinics more efficient and allowing human staff to focus their skills elsewhere.
The robot was unveiled on the opening day of the fourday Arab Health 2024 expo in Dubai yesterday, where almost 4,000 delegates from more than 180 countries are meeting to exchange views and ideas on technology in the global health care sector.
The Camello+ robot, built by Singapore technology company Otsaw and costing $70,000, has a battery life of up to eight hours and, the company said, is capable of doing the work of three fulltime employees.
Ling Ting Ming, Otsaw founder and chief executive, said he hopes to sell 1,000 of the robots to hospitals around the world this year.
“Health care is a very different landscape,” said Mr Ling. “First of all, the software must be proven in a huge hospital, how they use it in [everyday] operation, because delivering food in a hospital is mission critical.
“Imagine you have 800 beds, and 800 patients not getting their meals on time. It would be a major problem, so the robots must integrate with the lifts and doors in the hospitals.
“Camello+ is able to operate indoors and outdoors, so if you have two hospital blocks and you have to go outdoors, it can manage.”
The robot is also designed to learn by gathering data to make it more efficient.
So far, more than 50 hospitals have Otsaw’s Transcar robot, designed to carry heavier loads than the Camello+.
Autonomous mobile robots such as the Camello+ can simplify routine tasks and reduce the physical demands on the human workforce, Otsaw said.
Robots on cleaning and disinfection duties would allow hospitals to maintain hygiene standards, reducing the spread of infection, it said.
A hospital robot unveiled on the opening day of Arab Health in Dubai yesterday is designed to reduce labour intensive duties in wards and allow staff to focus on patient care.
From delivering meals to ensuring patients are given the correct medications, robots are beginning to do more than assist surgeons during operations.
Although the vision of an entire hospital run by robots may not become a reality, technology is quickly and efficiently helping to run clinics.
The Camello+ robot built by Singapore company Otsaw can do the heavy lifting work of three full-time staff.
The versatile $70,000 robot can deliver drugs, meals on demand, laundry and surgical tools – and dispose of medical waste when required.
Robots are already in use in the logistics and hospitality industries, but health care presents its own challenges for the machines.
Ling Ting Ming, Otsaw founder and chief executive, hopes to sell 1,000 of the robots to hospitals around the world this year.
“Software must be proven in a huge hospital because delivering food is mission critical,” said Mr Ling.
“Imagine you have 800 beds, and 800 patients are not getting their meals on time. It would be a major problem, so the robots must also integrate with the lifts and the doors in the hospitals.
“The Camello+ is capable of operating indoors as well as outdoors, so if you have two hospital blocks and you have to go outdoors, it can manage. That makes it a game changer.”
While steps and staircases may impede the movement of Camello+ ramps, lifts and automatic doors provide a suitable environment where it can operate.
The system is designed to improve with use by learning on the job and gathering data to make it more efficient.
More than 50 hospitals have bought the Otsaw Transcar robot for heavy lifting.
“We can integrate different kinds of robot on the same platform, using the same software – then we give the customer the data so they can plan efficiencies,” said Mr Ling.
“This is how smart hospitals should function in the future.
“Most of the challenges hospitals face today [are centred on] labour shortages for mundane jobs that a lot of people do not want to do.
“We are helping augment these operations, so the hospital can reassign the human to do something more on the patient care, the touch point.”
Autonomous mobile robots such as the Camello+ will allow hospitals to maintain hygiene standards, reducing the spread of infection, Mr Ling said. Dr Azad Moopen, founder, chairman and managing director of Dubai-based Aster DM Healthcare, said robots were beginning to take on a greater role across the care industry.
“Automation is something which is happening everywhere, but it has a huge role to play in health care,” he said.
“From the very basics, such as bar coding medicines given to the patients or the bar coding of blood samples and all other materials that need to be precisely managed – automation is crucial in avoiding a patient getting a wrong treatment or medicine. “It is one area where there has been tremendous development.”
Aster operates hospitals across the Middle East and India, with robots likely to play a greater role in day-to-day operations in the near future.
“There are many areas where robots can come in to work which don’t require a human touch,” said Dr Moopen.
“In health care, that is extremely important but, at the same time, there are many automatic things which can be done by AI.
“Pathology and X-rays are already monitored by AI to a great extent. Although we have not started using service robots yet, we are using bots in our customer service to reduce delays and manpower.”
Improved motion control technology has resulted in surgical assistance robots used by doctors to perform complex procedures becoming more precise and faster.
That has allowed some tasks to be completed autonomously in some cases, allowing surgeons to oversee those procedures from a console.
At Arab Health, Italian company Asa Laser is showing off its latest bone consolidation therapy, which repairs broken bones by applying magnetic fields to injuries.
The treatment is delivered autonomously on a hospital bed and is especially helpful in strengthening the weakened bones of osteoarthritis patients.
“The user can set up a full scan on the body of the patient who just lies there for a 20-minute cycle of the therapy,” said Carlo Marchesini, a marketing manager at the Vicenza-based company.
“It is an extremely low-frequency and low-intensity magnetic field, which is the most studied form of this kind of technology.
“It first requires some thought to define the right diagnosis and recovery path for the patient, then the automated tool takes over.”