The healthcare world is very progressive in nature and the stakeholders are always on the look out for a new way in which they will be able to deliver better patient care, give better operations results, and try to make medical processes faster. Another fascinating area that has begun to only emerge in the context of healthcare recently is robotics. New robotics technologies are not longer used only in manufacturing processes, but are instead being applied in the medical sector, enhancing both its quality and productivity. These include robot medical surgery, robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery, robot surgery, health-care robots, wearable robot, robotic exoskeleton and much more.
Going further, this article aims to discuss the main role of robotics in healthcare today, including main applications, advantages, disadvantages, and potential development in the healthcare industry.
1. Robotics in Healthcare:
a. What is Medical Robotics?
Medical robotics is the application of different robotic technologies in health care solutions such as operations, physiotherapy and for treating patients. These robots are intended to increase the accuracy, agility, and results of surgeries, yet reduce errors by people and better the quality of a patient’s stay.
Medical robots are capable of being taught with software that can be either operate independently or be under the supervision of the healthcare personnel than with traditional ways of surgery.
2. Most important use of robotics in healthcare organization:
Robotics is being applied in several key areas of healthcare, transforming both patient care and medical procedures:
a. Robotics
- It enables the surgeon to accomplish such operations with increased accuracy, reduced trauma to the surrounding tissues and muscles and less invasive incisions. Compared to a traditional open surgery using a directly visible surgical tool, the robotic approach allows minimally invasive with a high degree of precision because the robotic arms are fitted with tools and cameras.
- Da Vinci Surgical System: Probably one of the most recognized instances of teleoperated surgery is the Da Vinci Surgical System. This system offers the surgeon a 3D vision of the surgery area and hands-on control over robotic arms carrying instruments like scissors, sponges and it is characterized by higher resolution picture and finer control.
- Robot-aided surgery is most useful in procedures and areas where accuracy is especially essential, such as in urological surgery or gynecological surgery, orthopedic surgery, and cardiac surgery.
b. Robotic Prosthetics and Exoskeletons
- Robotic Prosthetics: The use of robots in development of artificial limbs is extremely important in fashioning limbs that look and work like the real ones. Modern prosthetic robots are developed with touch and movement features to provide a high level of dexterity to the user so that the person can perform various movements independently.
- Exoskeletons: Exoskeletons refer to wearable devices that are created for the purpose of helping the mobility disabled. Thus, these exoskeletons can be useful for people with paralysis or spinal cord injuries as it gives patients a simple possibility to move, if they were unable to do it before.
- These inventions are changing the treatment procedures of rehabilitation centres, and thereby, bringing better living for the disabled.
c. Rehabilitation Robotics
- Physical Therapy: This type of health care assistive technology refer to robotic systems in physical therapy for exercising patients who undergo surgery or have been affected by an injury. Robotic exoskeletons and robotic arms are set to move with prescribed force and range, allowing patients to rebuild strength, dexterity and balance.
- Stroke Rehabilitation: In stroke rehabilitation, robotic systems are used in accomplishing repetitive movements meant for the reshaping of the neural pathways in the brain that control the limbs. Innovative appliances in this case can give information directly to patients and therapists, thus helping to speed up a rehabilitation period and guarantee the correct execution of movements.
d. Client Self-Controlled Automated Assistances in Treatment
- Robotic Nurses: Bots are being used in the health sector especially in the hospital where they are used to help in the delivery of drugs, moving foods or other items around or even help attend to a patient’s needs. These robots can help assist human nurses on the ward meaning that human beings, who are professional in their own right, dedicate more of their time on other serious tasks.
- Robot Caregivers: Robots can be very useful to those patients who require constant attention, provided care for the elderly or the disabled; the robots will assist in feeding, administration of drugs and movement. It will be for the benefit of patients as well as their attendants since these robots will enhance patient’s comforts in addition to relieving the burden on human beings.
3. Positive Impact of Robotics in Health Care
Robots are having a profound impact on healthcare, offering numerous advantages for both medical professionals and patients:
a. More precision and higher accuracy
- Surgical Precision: Robotic assistants include robotic arms which provide more accurate surgical procedures and surgical robots which allow surgeons to conduct delicate procedures. The upswing in accuracy enhances the results, reduces incidences of complications and shortens patient recovery periods.
- Minimized Human Error: Humans are logged to some extent because robots do not make mistakes as they do their job with precision and accuracy. This is reliability important in delicate procedures for example when doing surgery on the head, operating on the brain or in transplantations.
b. Minimally Invasive Procedures
- A large number of robotics surgeries being performed are laparoscopic, they involve smaller cuts of the patient’s skin, therefore they cause the patient less discomfort, leave less marks and the patient can recover faster.
- Minimally invasive surgery also eliminates chances of infection, and is also a crucial factor with open surgeries.
c. Enhanced Patient Outcomes
- Robotics in surgery improves patients’ health because it offers surgeons more information, enhanced control of instruments, as well as a more extensive vision of the operative territory. All these factors lead to enhanced safety and efficiency in conduct of operations during medical procedures.
- It also aids in the faster recovery of patient, in that robotic rehabilitation offers custom made therapy on correct motion path.
Conclusion:
Robotics is slowly but surely becoming a valuable tool in the healthcare industry and already boasts the following benefits: a) Increased accuracy; b) Improved patient outcomes; c) Enhanced processes. From laparoscope surgeries to rehabilitation devices and therapeutic robotic assistants, the classes of uses of robots in health care are numerous and are still increasing.
It is clear that robotics in healthcare has a rosy future even though there is more work to be done in this field especially on issues to do with costs and training of professionals in the use of this newer technology. With the growth in the development and availability of technology, robots are set to become relevant assets in the delivery of care as well as the alternative to traditional measures of care delivery to patients. The health care organizations that embrace these technologies will thus be poised to attend to the increasing needs of the patients feedback while being more effective, efficient and cost friendly.