Robots

With the recent boom in technological innovation, it isn’t hard to believe that robotics are being leveraged in the medical field to help fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stated by Ecorobotics, robots are helping in small and large capacities — from delivering food to frontline workers to acting as the sole source of sanitization in hospitals and medical facilities.

Overall, these new robots are helping complete tasks safely and more efficiently while lessening the load on frontline workers.

Let’s discover exactly how robotics is contributing to the fight against COVID-19.

Stand-In Doctors

Doctors and nurses have been at the forefront of this virus, fighting to stay healthy while taking care of their patients. From the beginning, they’ve been at the highest risk of contracting the coronavirus due to constant exposure.

Luckily, robots are being used to reduce the human-to-human contact between doctors and patients.

These robots act as stand-ins for doctors. This doesn’t mean they are giving random advice or checking off health tests; it means doctors can send robots into patient rooms to act as a communication system.

The stand-in robot doctors come attached with a microphone and speaker for remote operators to ask questions, console the patient, or find out how the patient is feeling. They also take temperatures and can make more rounds to monitor patients throughout the day and night.

Limiting the amount of in-person contact between medical workers and infected patients is crucial in helping stop the spread of COVID-19.

Delivering Food and Medicine

COVID patients are in need of constant care for a chance to get nursed back to health.

This means a staff member or practitioner has to stop by and drop off supplies, food, or medicine multiple times a day — just to care for one patient. Multiply that by multiple floors filled with patients, and delivering items takes up one person’s entire day.

In order to limit the number of times nurses come in contact with sick patients, facilities are leveraging robots to deliver the resources to the patients’ rooms.

Even a small task like this is helping to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Keeping Services Cleaned and Sanitized

Besides limiting human-to-human contact, proper sanitization procedures are one of the best ways to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Right now, all buildings are going through a vigorous sanitization process, but hospitals and doctor offices are required to abide by strict guidelines to help protect workers, patients, and visitors alike.

Robots are being used to help sanitize. They’re able to work on a scheduled system to clean rooms whenever it’s no longer occupied and use UV light to help disinfect surfaces.

UV lights are harmful to humans, so the fact that robots are able to use this method to sanitize is keeping humans out of harm’s way while also getting the proper cleaning and sanitizing completed.

Collecting DNA for COVID-19 Testing

When a patient comes into a facility for COVID-19 testing, they need to be treated as if they have already tested positive to help protect everyone involved.

Putting the people who collect DNA for testing into contact with the patient is putting them in harm’s way, and also risking the health of their co-workers.

Healthcare facilities are leveraging robotics to conduct testing in order to reduce exposure to potential positive cases.

The robots perform nasal swabs or deliver and collect self-performed tests. They can also perform finger pricks for rapid testing.

Using robots to collect DNA and COVID-19 tests is a beneficial way to keep all parties as safe as possible.

Robots Are Helping Prevent the Spread of COVID-19

Robots have paved the way for innovations in many industries — they’ve now become an incredible help to the healthcare industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Robotics is helping complete tasks in the medical field quicker, safer, and more efficiently. From large to small tasks, they are being utilized to help frontline workers and keep them safe.

When it comes to dealing with the coronavirus, you can never be too safe. Since human-to-human contact is the root danger, robotic automation solutions are the best way to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.