Healthcare’s Robotic Renaissance: Meeting Future Demands

Healthcare systems are grappling with immense social and economic pressures, including increasing worker burnout rates, an aging population requiring more attentive care, and severe staffing shortages. This challenging landscape was not only evident during the Covid-19 pandemic but also highlights the longing need for support to stifle this harsh reality.

Now imagine an alternative universe where healthcare workers are able to focus on value-added care. A system that encourages innovation and operationalizes it. Sounds too good to be true? It’s not – it’s the age of robotics in healthcare. From the operating room to the front desk, robotics are now being integrated into a variety of applications with the purpose of freeing up time and services for healthcare workers to do what they do best, patient care.

Lending a hand (or a robotic arm) to hospital operations

In hospitals, robots can be leveraged to streamline operational tasks. For example, autonomous mobile service robots can be deployed to deliver meals and medication to patients, samples to labs, and various other supplies throughout the hospital. They can also be used to track and monitor facility inventory by automatically placing orders when stock is low, cutting potential shortages of critical supplies caused by human error. 

Reducing patient wait times is another key benefit that the integration of robotics can bring to healthcare. Advancements like AI-assisted diagnostics, surgical robots, and robotic rehabilitation tools can lessen treatment and recovery times with increased surgical precision. With human-robot collaboration, patients can benefit from fewer post-procedural complications and enhanced health outcomes. Collectively, these technologies can eventually usher in more rapid patient turnaround with less crowded hospitals.

Expanding healthcare accessibility

In remote or rural locations, access to healthcare can be limited, especially for specialized treatments. Telepresence robots allow doctors to have a more interactive presence with their patients while being geographically dispersed. 

Autonomous drones can also be leveraged to bridge gaps in healthcare accessibility, with the ability to instantly deliver critical medical supplies, or even donor organs. They also enable more rapid emergency response, eliminating traditional constraints like traffic or poor weather. Although this might seem minor, some patient outcomes can be defined by a matter of minutes, like those associated with organ transplants which have stringent viability timeframes. 

Trusting robotic technology in surgery

Surgeons can utilize robotics to enhance overall precision and control during medical procedures, leading to a reduction in human error and therefore increased patient safety. Patients receiving robot-assisted surgery benefit from shortened hospital stays and more minimally invasive procedures, which can improve their long-term outcome.

More in-demand medical specialties such as urology, orthopedics, and gynecology have progressively incorporated robot-assisted surgeries. For example, in orthopedics, these types of surgeries are commonly used for total hip or knee replacement. The precision provided by robotic systems guarantees the implant is properly placed, which can enhance joint function. The popularity of this technology has also grown in gynecology for complex procedures like hysterectomies, as the increased agility of the robotic instruments allows for smaller incisions and lead to decreased patient recovery time. 

Laying the groundwork for expanded implementation

Despite the overwhelming ability of robotics to transform modern-day healthcare, there are some significant roadblocks, like patient trust and knowledge. Many patients are unaware of the availability and benefits of robotic surgeries. However, when there is increased knowledge and familiarity among patients about robotics in medicine, they tend to be more open to their incorporation in their treatment and care. To expand robotic implementation in hospitals, it will be crucial for the broader industry to expand available information and expertise to the public.

Multiple regulatory organizations and standard bodies across the globe like the FDA and the ISO are putting forth frameworks for AI safety in healthcare robotics, which is widely seen as the future of digital surgery. Published in 2024, ISO/IEC 5469 is one example of these developments and outlines a recommendation for functional safety for AI-driven systems and a roadmap to ensure AI reliability with a focus on comprehensibility, risk mitigation tactics, and real-time validation. In the U.S., the FDA created an AI/ML-Based Medical Device Action Plan to develop good machine learning practices (GMLP) for AI healthcare systems that are fail-safe and consistent. So, as technological advancements are being made in healthcare, the guidance to ensure human safety, and in turn gain trust, are also being augmented.

Photo: PhonlamaiPhoto, Getty Images

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