Doctors don't want robots to leave them after the Pandemic

The COVID‑19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2). The outbreak was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 and a pandemic on 11 March. The novel coronavirus crisis has increased public interest in robotic technologies and artificial intelligence, seen as effective resources in combating the pandemic.

Technical Aspects                                   

                   

There are many technologies which are working hand in hand with the Doctors and medical staff to combat the pandemic. Some of the most effective technologies which are being used predict and contain the pandemic are: -

·       AI to identify, track and forecast outbreaks

Tracking infectious disease risks by using AI is exactly the service Canadian start-up Blue Dot provides. In fact, the BlueDot’s AI warned of the threat several days before the Center for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization issued their public warnings.

·       AI to help diagnose the virus

    Artificial intelligence company Infer vision launched a coronavirus AI solution that helps front-line healthcare workers detect and monitor the disease efficiently. Imaging departments in healthcare facilities are being taxed with the increased workload created by the virus. This solution improves CT diagnosis speed. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba also built an AI-powered diagnosis system they claim is 96% accurate at diagnosing the virus in seconds.

·       Process healthcare claims

It’s not only the clinical operations of healthcare systems that are being taxed but also the business and administrative divisions as they deal with the surge of patients. A blockchain platform offered by Ant Financial helps speed up claims processing and reduces the amount of face-to-face interaction between patients and hospital staff.

·       Robots sterilize, deliver food and supplies and perform other tasks

As robots doesn’t have any source of getting affected by the noval coronavirus, they are extensively used to sterilize the COVID-19 wards and to provide patients with food, medicine and many other tasks. UVD robots from Blue Ocean Robotics use ultraviolet light to autonomously kill bacteria and viruses. Some robots provide the feature of connecting the doctor and patient through its video call facility making the physical interaction between Doctor and Patient minimum which will result in low rate of transmission.

·       Develop drugs

Google’s DeepMind division used its latest AI algorithms and its computing power to understand the proteins that might make up the virus, and published the findings to help others develop treatments.  BenevolentAI uses AI systems to build drugs that can fight the world’s toughest diseases and is now helping support the efforts to treat coronavirus, the first time the company focused its product on infectious diseases. Within weeks of the outbreak, it used its predictive capabilities to propose existing drugs that might be useful.

Doctor’s View

 

As, all the healthcare workers are more vulnerable to the pandemic, and there is a great need of medical staff all over the World and in accordance with this. In the beginning of the pandemic Chinese company CloudMinds have send several robots to Wuhan, the epicentre and origin of corona virus. By then, All the medical facilities turn up to robots to work in this time of crisis.

The robot arrived just a few days after Christine Kiernan, an orthopaedic surgeon at Tullamore Hospital in Ireland, was diagnosed with COVID-19. She’d arranged for Violet, an autonomous ultraviolet cleaning machine, to start trials at Tullamore to help the hospital adapt to staff shortages caused by the pandemic.

Around the world, health care workers have had to change how they deliver care overnight, with new focuses on telemedicine and remote diagnosis. For many, this has created an environment where new approaches are treated with less suspicion and more optimism. Doctors from all around the world are embracing the role robots are playing to contain the pandemic. Doctors say they are witnessing a new era of medicine and believe that robots should help them by providing their support even after the pandemic.

Right now, the world is facing a very different pandemic. But there’s a similar opportunity for lessons to be learned — not just by accepting the helping hands of robots, but by creating more adaptable health services in general. If not for this pandemic, then for the next one.

India’s stand on working with Robots

As health workers, researchers and governments struggle to contain the spread of the Covid-19, robotics brand Milagrow said it is making efforts along with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to help contain the spread of the pandemic amongst doctors and healthcare workers.

“Milagrow Floor Robot iMap 9.0 and Milagrow Humanoid will be tried at AIIMS Hospital New Delhi,” said Randeep Guleria, Director of AIIMS.

Manufactured in India, the Milagrow iMap 9 is a floor disinfecting robot that can navigate and sanitize the floors without any human intervention. It is able to destroy Covid spores on floor surfaces using sodium hypochlorite solution, as recommended by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The robot moves around autonomously without falling, avoiding obstruction while planning its own path, guided by LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and advanced SLAM (simultaneous localisation and mapping) technology. Additionally, the robot can do zoning, virtual blocking of avoidable areas and sequential cleaning of zones based on specific needs.

The Milagrow Humanoid ELF enables doctors to monitor and interact with contagious Covid-19 patients remotely with no person-to-person contact, thereby significantly reducing the transmission risk. Bored patients in isolation wards can also interact with their relatives from time to time through this robot. The Humanoid ELF can navigate around the ward independently and record the activities in high definition video and audio. The advanced humanoid features eyes with Emotion, Open API (application programming interface) for further development and customization. Both the Milagrow iMap 9 and Humanoid ELF come with the auto charging feature.