Healthcare’s Next Frontline Workers
Robotic answers to the challenges facing the healthcare industry are not new. In 2017’s The Future of Medicine, our team investigated how robotics and automation were being utilized in the space. Also, since early 2015, we have tracked the Forces of Change driving the ever quickening rate at which automated solutions are being utilized in the healthcare, sports, commerce and food spaces. In early 2020, a new force of change began impacting nearly every aspect of global life, a force we did not identify back in 2015 but did come close to predicting in 2017: the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March of 2020, as a result of public health guidelines put in place to slow the spread of the Coronavirus, we saw unprecedented layoffs and furloughs along with unemployment claims in the millions. At one point in May, nearly 15% of Americans were out of work — a level not seen since the Great Depression. The global healthcare industry was one of many forced to adapt to this new normal. For an industry so reliant on in-person interactions, this near instantaneous shift toward a dependency on the exact opposite approach to care was predictably difficult. While some businesses have been able to put up plexiglass barriers between line workers and began requiring mask-wearing in break rooms, a number of hospitals, doctors offices and other medical facilities needed more advanced solutions and turned their attention towards a number of emergent technologies. From medical robots handling nursing duties, to telemedicine, drone deliveries and social chatbots helping patients deal with their mental health, robots are proliferating in the healthcare industry.
Pepper, from SoftBank Robotics is “the world’s first social humanoid robot able to recognize faces and basic human emotions” on duty
There are also a number of more accessible options for the elderly and those with disabilities on the horizon with studies being conducted on chatbots’ effectiveness on improving mental health and robots being used to improve the mental health of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Mexico.
These studies and the wider acceptance of chatbot-based therapy, go hand in hand with the explosion of mental health apps . Soon AI-powered applications will aid in the full range mental healthcare of all patients in need.
What does the future hold?
The Coronavirus pandemic has hastened two important components of any new technology moving past early adaptors and to the general public: acceptance and proliferation / access. Patients and providers are more open to robots becoming a part of their workplaces and public spaces out of necessity. Companies providing and utilizing robotic and AI-powered solutions are also more common than in a pre-pandemic world. All of this creates an ecosystem in which the upward trajectory of robotics in public health and medical environments looks to outlast the pandemic. The government, VCs and businesses are also investing millions of dollars into companies working on advancing and expanding the use of these automated technologies.
By 2030, robots working in medical facilities will be responsible for far more than COVID specific physician aid. Their duties will expand to all non-patient tasks currently handled by orderlies or nurses, delivering equipment, lab specimens, supplies, meals, linens and more freeing up nurses to spend more time with their patients. Some basic medical tasks like taking / testing blood and administering certain viral / bacterial tests could be fully automated as well.
Mental health monitoring and aid will be at least semi-automated for certain patients with chatbots and socially sentient robots becoming smarter and more culturally accepted in the west. A combination of physician / developer input, monitoring and machine learning will allow them to tailor their behavior to individual patients.
Disinfection bots will likely become an even more common sight also. Their success in hospitals, airports and subways has already led to their introduction into other highly trafficked buildings. Post-pandemic, they will be a presence in museums, more sports stadiums, retail locations, fulfillment centers, warehouses, government buildings and other high density spaces.