A dog-like mobile robot named Dr. Spot could advance medical treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a new link between isolated patients and doctors who need to see them.
The four-legged robot is designed to aid assessments, with the canine device with a video camera, which is connected to a doctor, to visit patients who need to be isolated, the New York Post reported.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, we wanted to help protect the health workforce from the virus by limiting their exposure to potentially COVID-infected patients,” said Giovanni Traverso, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on the project. . .
“We wondered if we could do this by incorporating robotic systems into healthcare settings and if patients would be willing to engage with robots during their assessments,” he said.
In a new study published this month, Traverso and colleagues Peter Chai and Henwei Huang described how patients reacted to healthcare from robots.
“People are very positive and accept robotic systems in health care settings, especially during a pandemic,” Traverso said.
Dr. Spot, a robot built to help doctors see patients without direct contact during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
The robot developed by MIT and Boston Dynamics can perform minor procedures, such as assessing vital signs, taking nasal swabs, and placing intravenous catheters.
The researchers conducted a nationwide survey of 1,000 people to analyze their thoughts about receiving medical services from robots.
“We found that people across the country were willing to engage with robots, especially systems that facilitate telehealth and systems that facilitate the measurement of vital signs such as heart rate, respiratory rate and oxygen levels,” Traverso said.
Giovanni Traverso is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who helped develop Dr. Spot
The researchers then teamed up with Boston Dynamics robotics engineering and design firm in nearby Waltham, Massachusetts, to build Dr. Spot.
Dr. Spot is made of aluminum, plastic, and circuit boards and, like other robotic physicians, can perform minor procedures, including assessing vital signs, taking nasal swabs, and placing intravenous catheters.
“It takes a few months to build a robot,” said Marco da Silva, a senior robotist at Boston Dynamic, which is owned by SoftBank Group Corp.
Product offerings from Boston Dynamics start at around $ 74,500, with the option of additional customizations that can cost more than $ 20,000 each, his website said.
Da Silva said it would take another six weeks to build the specialized software and the changes needed to provide Spot the ability to perform patient assessments.
Marco da Silva, a principal robotist at Boston Dynamic, who worked on the Dr. Spot project
The researchers presented Dr. Spot to 40 patients in the emergency department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
The team set up an iPad at the Spot base, which displayed real-time, person-to-person video, allowing doctors and nurses to conduct telehealth interviews with patients while they operated the remote control robot.
Robo-doc’s sophisticated cameras and computer systems that can identify a face even if a patient is wearing a mask. It can also assess body temperature, respiration and pulse and use special lens filters to determine oxygen saturation in the blood.
People are sitting on the grass outside building 10 on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Boston Dynamics is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. The robotics and engineering company teamed up with MIT to work on the Dr. Spot project
Overall, patients in the emergency department responded very favorably to Dr. Spot, especially because it reduces a person’s risk of COVID exposure, Traverso said.
More than 90 percent of patients reported that their interactions with the robot were satisfactory and said they were willing to interact with more robotic systems, the study said.
“Robotics, to some extent, is already used in hospitals,” Traverso said. But in COVID-19, we see that robotic systems could really play a significant role in health care, based on high human acceptance.