Robot Nurse Takes Pulse in Singapore

A Singapore hospital has trialed the use of a ‘robot nurse’ that can take patients' vital signs.

Alexandra Hospital has completed an eight-month trial with ‘Florence,’ a robot nurse who works at patient bedsides and could reportedly do the work of two human hospital staff.

Florence can identify patients by scanning their wrist tags with AI-based software and taking their vital signs using a camera, sensors, and a pulse oximeter. The data then goes directly into the patient's electronic health record.

The Singapore Straits Times reports that the robot can also deliver medication, snacks, and other items and can detect which side of the bed the patient favors, so it can move to that side to address them. 

Florence has been developed by the hospital in collaboration with NCS, a unit of Singtel, with the help of a SGD1.8 million grant from the National Robotics Program. 

Having completed the trial at the Alexandra Hospital, Florence is reportedly off to work at another hospital for further evaluation.

In addition to replacing work done by human nurses, Florence could ultimately end up working alongside them as a colleague, depending on the evaluation.

Professor Lawrence Ho, the director of the National University Health System's Centre for Innovation in Healthcare, said that the use of robots would have to be scaled up “in a big way” to bring costs down. He also believed that hospitals would ultimately accept them.

"I embrace all the robots because, to me, the issue is whether we are willing to give up our current workflow because for technology to be adopted, you have to unlearn and relearn,” Professor Ho told the Straits Times.

"Unlearning is tough because we hold on to what we know. It is our power. So rather than saying that you're powerless now, this robot is going to take away your job, (you say that) you're going to be even more powerful, and the robots are here to be your assistant."

Image credit: iStockphoto/Moussa81