Use of Robots in Critical Care: Systematic Review

Abstract

Background The recent focus on the critical setting, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, has highlighted the need for minimizing contact-based care and increasing robotic use. Robotics is a rising field in the context of health care, and we sought to evaluate the use of robots in critical care settings. Objective Although robotic presence is prevalent in the surgical setting, its role in critical care has not been well established. We aimed to examine the uses and limitations of robots for patients who are critically ill. Methods This systematic review was performed according to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. MEDLINE, Embase, IEEE Xplore, and ACM Library were searched from their inception to December 23, 2021. Included studies involved patients requiring critical care, both in intensive care units or high-dependency units, or settings that required critical care procedures (eg, intubation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation). Randomized trials and observational studies were included. Results A total of 33 studies were included. The greatest application of robots in the intensive care unit was in the field of telepresence, whereby robots proved advantageous in providing a reduced response time, earlier intervention, and lower mortality rates. Challenges of telepresence included regulatory and financial barriers. In therapy and stroke rehabilitation, robots achieved superior clinical outcomes safely. Robotic use in patient evaluation and assessment was mainly through ultrasound evaluation, obtaining satisfactory to superior results with the added benefits of remote assessment, time savings, and increased efficiency. Robots in drug dispensing and delivery increased efficiency and generated cost savings. All the robots had technological limitations and hidden costs. Conclusions Overall, our results show that robotic use in critical care settings is a beneficial, effective, and well-received intervention that delivers significant benefits to patients, staff, and hospitals. Looking ahead, it is necessary to form strong ethical and legislative frameworks and overcome various regulatory and financial barriers. Trial Registration PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews CRD42021234162; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=234162

Human resource management (HRM) strategies of medical staff during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Telepresence is more complicated than telemedicine, as it provides the possibility of using equipment (such as a stethoscope, oximeter, otoscope, etc.) to examine patient from distance [ 66 ]. Nevertheless, issues such as high cost, political and social concern caused by the unknown consequences of using robots, limited access, inflexibility, and inability of developing countries to acquire and maintain such tools are among the challenges of using health robots [ 65 ].…”

The Current State and Future of Artificial Intelligence in Health

“…Rehabilitation robots Rehabilitation robots can help restore motor function to patients and help reduce the workload of health care workers [17]. The rehabilitation robot can perform repetitive and complex movements for long periods of time and can monitor and adjust movement and force parameters precisely in real time [18].…”

The self-perpetuation of the promise of care robots

“…Some have been in use now in areas such as companionship, cognitive assistance, telepresence and monitoring (for robots as companions of elderly people see, for example, Lu et al, 2021). Recent studies show that, if successfully integrated into the workflows of care professionals, robots applied in these areas can have a positive effect on health outcomes and can support care professionals (for example, for the areas of telepresence and monitoring in critical care see Teng et al, 2022). However, these applications usually do not require the robot to be able to collaborate directly with care professionals and the robots do not have the degree of autonomy necessary for collaborative tasks (for example, the means for physically manipulating the environment).…”