Akila Isuri Wickramaarachchi | Undergraduate | University of Sri Jayewardhanepura

Would you rely on a robotic surgeon? Some people will find it uncomfortable to rely on medical robots doing surgeries or robotic nurses nursing them during stressful circumstances. And also, you will wonder whether doctors and nurses will lose their jobs shortly as a result of implementing medical robots. With the advancement of technology, engineers are focusing more on introducing robots to assist healthcare services. Unlike human beings, robots are precise. Thus they can perform repetitive tasks tirelessly which are beyond human capacity.

A recent study by John Hopkins claims that more than 250,000 people from the United States of America die each year due to medical errors.[1] Figure 01 is the da Vinci Surgical System, which is capable of making miniature and exact incisions that human hands might not be able to make using 3D high-definition vision with the highest precision. These surgical robots are always under the control of a surgeon. They will minimize invasive surgeries by less bleeding, faster bleeding, and reducing the risk of infection.

The nursing profession acts as the backbone of the health care service. Both rising health care costs and the increasing aging population impact the nursing profession and health care services. Figure 02 is Moxi, which is a nursing assistant robot. It is programmed to perform tasks like delivering samples from the laboratory, gathering supplies and distributing them to patients’ rooms, and removing soiled bags. If a patient is due for a urinary catheter replacement, Moxi can establish the patient by referring to the patient records. Moxi is not only a nursing assistant but also a social robot. Patients are fascinated by Moxi as he flashes hearts or rainbow eyes at them. Even Moxi interacts with the staff, he greets them by saying “Hello there!”.

On account of the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, doctors, nurses, and other health care service employees risk their lives to treat people. The World Health Organization claims that between 80,000 and 180,000 healthcare workers may have died from COVID-19 between January 2020 and May 2021.[2] Consequently, engineers are paying attention to the telenursing concept where a human nurse can remotely control a robot to perform specific tasks related to patient care.

Technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud computing play a vital role in implementing advanced medical robots. One of the major challenges faced by robotic technology is cyber security. Patient safety cannot be ensured to its maximum as the robots are highly vulnerable to hacking. So, the robots can’t operate independently without the inspection of a person. Even though medical robots play a major role in the medical sector to make treatments efficient, accurate, and less invasive to the life of patients, they cannot replace doctors and nurses from their roles completely, due to the importance given to the interaction between patients and doctors.  The creativity and problem-solving ability of a human cannot be compared to algorithms and robots. Even though they can mimic human emotions, the beauty of human relationships, understanding others’ feelings, listening to them, and building trust, as the core of compassion, will not be revealed ever.

The purpose of robots is not to compete with humans but to help them. The prospect of robots that cooperate with humans is the greatest potential to make our planet a better place.