Healthcare Technology Featured Article

May 16, 2013

A Hospital Stay Will Soon Come with More Robots, Say Investors


Right now, the idea of a hospital stay is shockingly short on robots, according to John Simon, a partner with Boston investment firm Sigma Prime Ventures. Simon likens the idea to "the first inning of a nine-inning exercise," saying that most patients have no contact with robots. But within 10 years, that's going to change, and there are plenty of fronts on which robots can step in to interact with patients.

In fact, the interaction can start off right at the front door. Opening the door of a hospital is a potentially dangerous exercise for its occupants, as letting in outside air can bring with it a host of germs and the like. But waiting in the wings is a robotic sentinel against germs, the Xenex. The Xenex is a robotic base that has a Xenon bulb assembly mounted on it. With the bulb, the Xenex can essentially coat a room with a flash of ultraviolet light, sufficiently powerful that humans have to leave the room while the Xenex is active. But with that flash of ultraviolet light comes a lot of dead germs, and dead germs don't contribute to the 1.7 million people annually who get "healthcare associated infections," or the 99,000 of same who die from said infections annually.

Another robot then arrives on the scene to provide a note of human interaction, with telepresence robots like those of the RP VITA line, allowing doctors operating remotely to control a robot via tablet, and move around a hospital, conferring with patients via a video display and allowing patients to respond both verbally and with a mounted tablet control.

With the consultation now successfully concluded, robots are waiting on the surgical floor to step in and carry on. For instance, the da Vinci surgical robot--whose level of fine motor control is actually sufficient to peel a grape without damaging the fruit beneath--is currently seeing some use as a way to not only perform surgeries, but perform better surgeries, with fewer, smaller incisions that heal more readily and thus reduce recovery time thanks to lowered blood loss. For those who need amputation, robots are waiting to assist there too. New robotic prosthetic devices are giving patients a new lease on life, like the iWalk BiOM system.

Even for those patients who finished surgery and need a smile to help with recovery, robots are stepping in. Robots like the Paro, a Japanese development, serve as simulated pets for those in need, complete with lifelike movement and an overall calming demeanor that helps patients relax and thus better heal.

From start to finish, from reception desk to recovery to even billing, robots can have a wide variety of roles to fill in a hospital setting. About the only reason that more robots aren't in wider use is the issue of cost; the da Vinci, for example, commonly sells for $1.5 million per unit, and that leaves a lot of hospitals--already under fire for high prices--in the cold. The iWalk BiOM? $50,000. Having an RP VITA around? That runs between $4,000 and $6,000...per month. Naturally, as economies of scale kick in and more of the devices become available for more situations, costs come down, but for right now, most hospitals can't afford a big robotic presence. That's likely to change, and when it does, it's going to make for a very different trip to the hospital indeed.




Edited by Alisen Downey
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