Is robotics the next big step in healthcare?

Despite the significant amount of news and buzz that software and hardware innovation has generated in recent years, robotics is one of the fastest growing areas of technology. This sector is becoming increasingly important in almost all sectors and has the potential to create a huge impact, especially in healthcare.

One of the best known robotics companies is Boston dynamicsthat has made a name for itself by creating innovative robots that can provide practical solutions for everyday automation and labor needs. The company offers products to help organizations and businesses with a variety of tasks ranging from conducting inspections and assisting with facility management to warehouse automation and scaling supply chain needs. Other companies that have emerged in this area are not typical robotics companies, but have innovated in this area with their own processes out of necessity. Tesla, for example, has that announced his ambition to create “a bipedal, autonomous, general-purpose humanoid robot capable of performing unsafe, repetitive or boring tasks.” Another big player in this field is Amazon, which has created a huge player robotics infrastructure for its supply chain and fulfillment needs. Amazon’s Hercules For example, robot could reportedly lift nearly 1,250 pounds, move through spaces with ease, and even perform complex decision-making.

These advances have become increasingly relevant for healthcare. Robots in a technical sense are not particularly new in the clinical context. In fact, robot-assisted surgery has gained a lot of popularity in recent years, especially with innovations such as Da Vinci is intuitive surgical system, which has exponentially increased the scale and efficiency of minimally invasive surgery. Other systems have made incredible strides in the ability to communicate with patients. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare organizations around the world have deployed robots to talk to patients, connect with staff in facilities and perform important functions to keep people from being at risk of infection. Two specific examples were Mitra Robot and Moxiwhich have helped both organizations significantly during the pandemic.

The pace of innovation undoubtedly points to the need to draw a connection between the relatively nascent robotics story in healthcare and the fast-growing technology in the manufacturing and supply chain spaces (such as Amazon, Boston Dynamics, etc.) to drive a to achieve meaningful development. influence. While healthcare organizations may not have the same use cases or needs as large manufacturers or fulfillment centers, the same technology can ultimately be deployed in healthcare for automation, labor, and various other tasks. For example, there is still a lot of physical work that consumer and retail pharmacy practices require related to filling prescriptions and managing physical medications. Another example is the supply chain workflow for hospitals, which often have millions of SKUs to manage for devices, equipment, medical products and supplies. It could also be of utmost importance in the world of research and medical science. Per Intelwhich has been an early pioneer in this field, offers significant opportunities for automation in laboratories: “Intelligent, automated laboratory instruments help laboratories operate more efficiently and deliver more advanced testing services, while paving the way for AI-driven workflows and procedures.” Even in the world of surgery, while current systems focus on robot-assisted surgery, with the significant leaps being made in AI and computing powerthere may be more automation and opportunities for guided autonomy.

The key question will be how these companies and innovators will ensure safety and accuracy with robot delegation. While mistakes in the manufacturing and supply chain can lead to significant financial losses, mistakes in healthcare can ultimately literally cost lives. Therefore, the margin for error must be non-existent and the threshold for introducing these devices into healthcare must be incredibly strict and controlled.