Single style robotic race into Scottish hospital
The Forth Valley Hospital project in Scotland being designed to use robots was reported back in June 2007 by The Jaggy Thistle and BBC News, Scotland. At that time, the new hospital being built at Larbert in Stirlingshire, was also to be the first in the UK to use a fleet of robots to transport goods and equipment. The robots run along separate corridors and use magnetic strips or infra red to find their way around in technology, similar to that already used in car plants and semiconductor fab facilities and industrial shop floors as well as in hospitals in France and Japan. But while such a robotic porter sounds invaluable, why is Scotland not looking to other medical robotics which have been introduced apparently with success in the UK?
Hospital porters will still be needed to transport patients, while the robots
free them from arduous or dirty tasks.
The £300m hospital at Larbert to Robotic porter for Scotland
replace Falkirk and Stirling Royal Infirmaries to provide state-of-the-art facilities for the whole Forth Valley. "It makes sense because robots can do the task more efficiently is certain cases." David Stark, director of Keppie Design is reported as saying.
Now the British Council Science Cubed journal features the development as the first hospital robots to be used in the Forth Valley hospital since the complex is due for completion next year.
In large hospital complexes, robots can be an incredibly efficient way of moving materials around, including bed linen, operating theatre equipment, and waste removal. There will be a lot of this work, because when the new hospital is finished it will have up to 5,000 patients at any one time.
David Stark, director of the architectural company Keppie Design, which designed the new hospital explains that the robot system is an advance on existing technology which made use of the copper insert guide strip in the floor, used for most early industrial robots.
He points out that modern controls are more responsive and flexible with requests for material received by a central computer which dispatches the robot, assigning it in queue according the the urgency of the request.
More time with patients
A study carried out proves the superior efficiency of this system, and there are other hugely beneficial factors since robots take over the heavy and mundane manual tasks which can lead to safety issues and repetitive strain injury. In addition clean and dirty robots, segrate materials and minimise cross contamination and of course robots can work 24/52 without needing light.
The next step might be to have robots dispensing medicine from the pharmacy, and in America trials have taken place with robots ‘for minimally invasive surgery,' but Scotland is unlikely to be moving along that route too quickly suggests Cubed.
Robotic pharmacists
Yet The Musgrove Park Hospital Pharmacy in Taunton, England dispenses 160,000 items and 260,000 related supplies every year. Filling these orders is a substantial burden on pharmacists' time it was reported in 2007 in a tongue in cheek article by while and Leicester Infirmary had quietly done the same in 2006 with Grace, aka Filbert and Tiger.
The new robot pharmacist uses barcodes to identify and sort medication. This makes it possible for human pharmacists to spend more time with patients or refiling unused medications.
The robot can also keep records of every item in stock, and is able to check and sort all incoming orders to keep the records up-to-date. Two people will double check each prescription before handing it over to a patient. The robot has an error rate of one in 10,000.
The hospital says that the robot will save it more than 1,200 hours of staff time per year, and that it has already saved the hospital £30,000 ($58,000). This implies that human pharmacists are working fewer hours, rather than devoting all their newly free time to patients.
"The new robot has revolutionised the way we work and cut the time it takes to store, find and dispense drugs." - Principal Pharmacist Mark Ashley
http://www.newstarget.com/021758.html
Medical robots
St Mary's NHS Trust and Imperial College London piloted a scheme in 2005 where medical robots 
covered ward rounds. Remote Presence (RP6) Robots allow a medical expert to visually examine and communicate with a patient from anywhere in the world, via the machine, using wireless technology.
The robots (nicknamed by staff, as Sister Mary and Dr Robbie) can also be used for surgical teaching and even videoconferencing.
The robots are controlled with a joystick from a remote site. The doctor 'driving' the robot can view the patient, ask questions and read patient records, view X-rays and test results from the console. The patient sees the doctor's image on the robots 'face'.
Although the robot does not physically examine the patient it allows face-to-face contact between the doctor and patient, providing immediate access to specialists.
Parv Sains, project lead, Surgical Specialist Registrar and Research Fellow, said benefits include allowing patients direct access to experts worldwide and to the doctor who performed their surgery, even if they cannot be physically at the patient's bedside.
"If a specialist is at a conference in California but their medical opinion is needed for a St Mary's patient or to deliver a lecture to junior doctors the RP6 robot provides an instant and global link at any time of the day or night.
"Our robots certainly would never replace all doctors on ward rounds, but they are a communication tool which allows a doctor to have direct contact with their patient if they are unable to get to them.
With such a wealth of apparently successful robots in a variety of hospital in the UK, it seems suprising that Scotalnd has not dipped its toes into the prescribing or medial assistant pond yet.
Sources: www.thejaggythistle.co.uk/jun07robots.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolpda/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_6243000/6243616.stm
http://www.britishcouncil.org/science-cubed-story-1.htm
http://www.newstarget.com/021758.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/24650.php