How do patients experience the increasing level of automation at hospitals?
Written by Farzad Saber , M.Sc. in Engineering and co-founder of O2matic .
Sandau et al. (1) has just published a very interesting study regarding patients' attitudes to being treated by a robot. The study is based on feedback from 18 patients from 2019 to 2021, who have been treated by O2matic PRO.
It is very clear that patients perceive automatic oxygen therapy as positive in terms of safety for correct oxygen therapy, but with disadvantages in the form of alarms from the robot.
I was of course very proud when I read the patients believe that O2matic PRO reduces the intensity of their dyspnea, anxiety, and need for rescue inhalation and say:
” The robot did help me. It didn’t take so much effort for me to breathe with it on; it was like the air was there automatically. ”
“I must admit, the first day I got rid of it (the robot), I missed it in a somewhat awkward way. I missed looking up to see the state of things, such as if my saturation level was 90% or 85%. That way, I really missed it.”
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And my favorite one: “O2matic provided me with a feeling of safety but no care, and it didn’t greet me in the morning, as the nurses did.”
Another thing which is very clear is the number of alarms that may disturb the patient. One of the ways we can mitigate the risks of the patient’s vital values to be outside of the desired range is by alarming, but the question this article raises is how the medical staff, and the patients perceive the alarms.
I remember when my wife was giving birth to our first child, and while I was alone with my wife the device started alarming. I ran out of the room in panic attempting to find a nurse to look at my wife, but after I finally found a nurse and she had asked me some questions she told me; ‘it is okay, don’t worry’.
And now it is my turn to develop medical devices - and if the device is alarming then it is because something is wrong, the patient’s condition has changed and needs to be assessed by the staff, based on the defined configuration. It means that the staff who are using the technology needs to be trained to define the limits for alarming. As an example, if your car has an alarm which notifies you every time you are driving faster than 40 km/h then you will hear that alarm frequently but not always while driving in the city. However, if you were to use this limit when driving on a highway, then the limit is pointless.
We have spent the last two years optimizing the alarms on O2matic PRO and have made them more configurable, but it also means that the user of the robot must know how to use the new technology and understand the consequences of their decisions which if not utilized properly might result in too many or too late alarms.?
Automation of processes in the healthcare system requires a great focus on implementation and training of the staff. It is important not to forget training, especially when there is a large turnover in staff.?
Business Development Manager Healthcare
2 年Good job guys! Congratulations!