New robot helps care for kids in the emergency room at Children’s National Hospital

Small children and families who appear in to the crisis home at Children’s Countrywide Medical center may possibly be shocked when their health practitioner arrives in – in the kind of a robot. Children’s Countrywide launched a new robot to its Crisis Division (ED) for patients underneath analysis for a COVID an infection or currently being treated for other situations. The robot, which is section of the FCC-funded COVID-19 Telehealth Plan at Children’s Countrywide, is the hottest innovation of the program that has quickly developed owing to the ongoing pandemic.  

“The robot can move in and out of areas that normally we could not get a important number of suppliers in, primarily with COVID-19 limitations in area,” said  Shireen Atabaki, M.D., M.P.H., affiliate clinical director of Telemedicine, crisis medication health practitioner and method director for the COVID-19 Telehealth Plan at Children’s Countrywide. “This is a genuinely exciting method and it implements innovation that we may well not have been able to do without having the insights we have acquired from the pandemic.”

The robot is Wi-Fi-enabled and can be remotely managed by the health practitioner supplying the teleconsultation to monitor client vitals – such as coronary heart price, human body temperature or respiration price. This permits doctors to get the job done virtually with their team when also obtaining the flexibility to show up at to patients more rapidly. 

“The pandemic has made us knowledgeable of the will need to safeguard patients, families and personnel from infectious diseases,” said  Alejandro Jose Lopez-Magallon, M.D., clinical director of Telemedicine at Children’s Countrywide. The robot, he noted, spares clinicians from obtaining to transform their PPE, which will save time and gives them the skill to move on to the following client when nurses and personnel keep on to supply bedside treatment. 

“We have also witnessed that whenever a remote clinician is wholly on your own in the command center and can get on-display without having a mask, in a paradoxical way our patients may possibly be additional accepting of looking at a face on a display that is not protected with a mask and defend than a stranger working with a mask in the identical home,” Dr. Lopez-Magallon extra. 

Before long, the robot will also be utilized to coordinate subspecialty treatment – this sort of as cardiac treatment – in the ED. This will supply additional streamlined and expedited treatment for patients. As an alternative of leaving with a referral to set up a abide by-up appointment with a professional, patients would be able to obtain the talk to they will need throughout the identical appointment.

The robot is also presenting promising solutions for worries all over the number of limited guests. The team at Children’s Countrywide just lately piloted working with an iPad and other technological know-how bought with the FCC resources to remotely link household associates with patients. 

“We downloaded the Zoom application to iPads in our ED to be able to coordinate calls between household associates who can not appear in and see patients,” said Dr. Atabaki. “We are seeking to apply this as a lasting solution preserving in mind how burdensome and emotionally nerve-racking it has been for many not obtaining the skill to be by the cherished one’s aspect throughout this sort of a complicated time.” 

The FCC resources also protected the telehealth carts, tablets and other related gadgets, the telehealth system, telehealth machines and revolutionary AI (augmented intelligence) to take care of very seriously ill COVID-19 pediatric patients. 

The crisis section robot brings the robot-fleet at Children’s Countrywide up to three. The first robot was debuted in 2019 to serve youngsters and families in the Cardiac Intensive Care Device.  

Online video: B-roll of the ED robot can be observed in this article.

Media contact: Ariana Perez | 202-476-4500