A hospital in Ireland is using robots to help free up nurses to spend time with patients as possible for the whole duration of the coronavirus pandemic.
Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin will now have robots that rapidly work administrative and computer-based responsibilities that nurses generally do.
It is was hoping that by using giving nurses more available time, they could spend it in the face of critically sick patients battling COVID-19.
Machine to speed up the clunky process
Software developers at UiPath developed a gadget so one can speed up the regularly clunky processes in the healthcare system.
Jozef Gouwy, 93, looks at a robot made by ZoraBots for elderly people at home, so they can virtually communicate with their loved ones, amid the ban on visits against the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, in Ostend, Belgium March 16, 2020. Picture taken March 16, 2020.
It is was hoping that by getting computers to do most of the mundane admin responsibilities, they can spend up to 50 percent more time with patients.
The tech will also 'speed up the technique of analyzing and writing COVID-19 test results to patients and organizations around the world.
Jincy Jerry, Assistant Director of Nursing, Infection Prevention, and Control, claimed that IPC nurses spend around 30 percent of their day with administrative obligations. Hence, he had been trying to make software robots part of their daily jobs.
Instead of being in front of computer systems, Jerry said noted that all frontline workers should be freed up as much as possible to spend time with patients.
"It will also take the strain off the hospital as it continues to process huge amounts of more routine patient data in addition to Covid-19 specific information," he told DailyMail.
Jerry said rapid prognosis and appropriate self-isolation --- apart from social distancing --- are crucial to stopping the unfold of COVID-19.
He assured that the challenge the organization is embarking on will help mitigate the huge stress this outbreak is placing on healthcare organizations - not just in MMUH, but across Ireland.'
Healthcare workers to focus more on treating patients
Mark O'Connor, Public Sector Director Ireland at UiPath, added crucial frontline staff would be able to focus more on the great of care with a robot to help.
The pass from the medical institution comes as robot specialists say machines might be skilled to disinfect surfaces, take temperatures and collect swabs.
Adding new functionalities to robots could allow the 'dull, grimy and perilous jobs' to be automated.
In an article for a scientific journal, Howie Choset of the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and other signatories said robots were also used for a broad spectrum of cases during the Ebola Outbreak in 2015.
The team said any of those programs might serve to help reduce the risk of humans being directly exposed to the disease.
Without a sustainable approach to research, the researchers said history will repeat itself. Hence, robots might not be ready to face the next incident.
However, Choset and his team noted that funding for multidisciplinary research in partnership with agencies and industry to meet these use cases remains expensive, rare and directed to other applications.
