Doctors and nurses at a hospital in Varese, Italy, overwhelmed with severe cases of Covid-19, got an assist from a new team of unconventional nurses. They don’t need masks or protective gear and hardly ever need a break (outside of a quick recharge). That’s because this “team” is made up of robotic nurses.
These six robots constantly monitor ICU patients on ventilators at the northern Italy hospital, measuring oxygen levels and blood pressure. They’ve freed up time — as well as safety masks and other personal protective equipment — for human doctors and nurses to focus their time and energy on more critical cases, while also limiting exposure to infected patients. Using the robot, nicknamed Tommy, staff can also communicate with patients from a distance by using his touch screen, built-in audio system, and microphone.
“You have to explain to the patient the aim and function of the robot,” Dr. Francesco Dentali, the hospital’s ICU director, said in a recent interview. “The first reaction is not positive, especially for old patients. But if you explain your aim, the patient is happy because he or she can speak with the doctor.”
Tommy can’t replace the comfort and compassion of a human being, but automated technology, including robots, is helping us fight the novel coronavirus. These technologies are only effective, though, if they factor in human trust and other behaviors, a focus of my research in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. In other words, automated systems will only work if humans can feel comfortable and interact with them in a natural way. With a deeper understanding of human-machine interactions — and with further investments and research — we can make the most of this technology in the years ahead.
Valuing our relationship with machines might seem counterintuitive at a time when social distancing has separated us from loved ones. With job losses and unemployment careening higher, the mere mention of “automation” can send shudders. But as Tommy shows, if leveraged and deployed in the right ways, robots don’t replace humans. They enable people to put their time and effort toward what really matters — in this case, providing critical care to patients who demand human interventions.
Humans aren’t wired to automatically distrust new technology. However, when an innovation doesn’t catch on or provide widespread societal benefit, it’s often because its creators neglected to consider the real people impacted by the technology. Our innovators too often fail to incorporate user-centered design, considering a person’s comfort level with a product or process. This is especially true with technology that closely mimics human behavior or functions, like robots, automation, or artificial intelligence and machine-learning.
Yet, people are more willing to trust a robot’s function when it’s a mutual collaborator rather than a replacement. Tommy exemplifies this: patients are initially reluctant to be cared for by a robot rather than a human until they understand that Tommy makes it possible for them to receive better care and relieves pressure on health care providers. Tommy doesn’t replace the human doctors and nurses, or limit care — he expands it.
Tommy and similar technologies are useful to us when trust is established in their functionality. Since the pandemic began, nations have deployed robots to disinfect hospitals and other public spaces. Delivery drones are transporting food and prescriptions to consumers and even infectious samples to laboratories. Even so, these technologies are not used to their full potential — not yet, anyway — because so many machines aren’t fully understood by people. Our goal should be to improve users’ ability to assess when they should — and shouldn’t — trust these technologies, thus paving the way for their increased impact in the future.
During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, investments in research and development of medical robots spiked but largely evaporated once the disease was contained. If there’s a lesson from that outbreak, it’s that we should use moments of calm to explore the technological promises on the horizon. Imagine the impact that widely available technology could have today in helping health care providers insert ventilators, conduct surgeries, or help nursing home residents with medication from afar. We must use the lessons of Covid-19 to take a longer view in developing tested, ready-to-use automation for when the next crisis hits — pandemic, natural disaster, or another unforeseen catastrophe. The payoff might not be immediate, but this kind of investment means we’ll be ready.
Authored by Neera Jain for Forbes. Neera Assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, US.
