Worchester, Massachusetts – Public health experts have explored the use medical robots in a bid to stop the spread of the fatal Ebola virus.
According to the scientists and engineers who came together at Worchester Polytechnic Institute, what’s great about medical robots is that they don’t get sick and they aren’t difficult to disinfect like the nurses working in urgent care clinics that are exposed to the disease. What’s also great about machines is that they are able to carry out various medical tasks that range from disposing medical waste to the lifting and carrying of patients.
Last Friday, lots of public health experts all around the country met in a nationwide conference that was planned by the White House. The participants explored the use of robots to battle against Ebola. They say that there are many machines that can be reprogrammed specifically for stopping the spread of the virus in Africa.
If the experts would be effective in reprogramming the existing robots, the machines will carry out tasks that are presently done by medical personnel and urgent care aides that are exposed to the Ebola patients and putting themselves at risk of being infected.
According to Jennifer Pagani of QinetiQ North America in Waltham, a principal mechanical engineer, the best form of personal protective equipment is to put a stop to the sending human to the Ebola-ravaged countries. The medical robots made by her company could be sent to Africa for help in disposing contaminated medical waste.
During the conference, William Smart of Oregon State University presented a video showing a robot removing linen from a bed of one patient and discarded the contaminated sheets.
Cambridge’s Hstart Technologies have created a prototype robot that is able to lift and carry a patient in its arms. The medical robot is particularly built to help nurses in urgent care clinics in military hospitals but Hstar said that it’s working on a version which can be deployed to Africa as a help in moving contaminated patients.
In Africa, robots are already seen in Ebola-ravaged urgent care near me sites and there were two hygiene robots sent by the US Lumalier Corp. to disinfect hospital rooms automatically.
The public health experts believe that the medical robots already deployed and soon to be sent to Africa should be able to help make the jobs of the nurses and doctors a lot easier and at the same time make them less exposed to the virus.
