Could you imagine having a robot as your doctor? Over the past few decades, technology has developed in ways that have expanded globalization and produced change all over the world. Specifically in healthcare today, medical practices all around the world have been acquiring robots to do simple practices like delivering medicines to patients and disinfecting rooms to sometimes doing minor surgical procedures on patients.
Types of robots
There are several ways in which robots are currently being used in the medical field today. Having robots around will allow nurses and doctors to ease off time-consuming tasks as robots will do them. Some of these types of robots include:
Surgical robots: Surgical robots are used to help surgeons with performing minor procedures precisely and proficiently. For example, some orthopedic surgeons today use surgical robots to perform knee and hip replacement surgeries. In the future we predict surgical robots to be able to navigate and be precise in locating all parts of the body for surgeries.
Therapeutic robots: Therapeutic robots help patients with recovering from surgeries, strokes, traumatic injuries, etc. These robots are equipped with in-depth cameras which can precisely monitor a patient's recovery process. For example, many robots use their camera feature to monitor if patients in recovery are doing their recovery exercises correctly. Therapeutic robots are also used to give patients encouragement and hope throughout their hospital stay.
Social robots: As the name infers, social robots are used to interact with patients. These robots are used in hopes of creating a healthy and interactive environment. Social robots do so by encouraging patients, guiding patients and visitors to areas of the hospital, and interacting with people around the hospital. The main goal of a social robot is to make the hospital environment happy and flexible environment mentally and physically for patients, staff, and visitors.
Advantages of having robots in the workplace
Having robots in a workplace can be a scary thought, but there are many positive effects that come from having robots around. For one, research is showing positive effects with the use of robots; they can cut down the time needed to perform surgeries and process patients' data greatly. Secondly, having robots around can help minimize the doctor's time from being used up doing tedious tasks and instead that time can be used for the patient in care. Lastly, research has shown that robots' visions of things are far more precise than humans' when it comes to performing surgeries. With this information, robots are less likely to create complications or mistakes when performing surgeries.
Disadvantages of having robots in the workplace
Although having robots in health comes with multiple benefits, there are some negative benefits as well. Robots are very expensive to obtain, making it difficult to make use of robots in healthcare. Also training a robot to the hospital’s guidelines is a very tedious and time-consuming process. Another disadvantage is the thought of robots replacing human workers. Although this is very unlikely, there is still a thought lingering that if robots do work in the healthcare field and do a more precise job than human nurses, doctors and staff do; then what purpose do these doctors, nurses, and staff have?
In short, we can come to terms that in the future we will most likely see robots not just in healthcare but in all industries. Having robots will cause both negative and positive impacts, but it is believed that having robots will benefit the greater good. The direction of robots looks good right now and in the future to come, so how would you feel having a robot as your coworker?
Work cited
Brigette Hyacinth******@***mba-caribbean.orgLeadership and Management Author & Keynote Speaker Founder - MBA Caribbean OrganisationTrinidad and Tobago.
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