Health Care In The Metaverse- January 2023

Automating Hospital Workflows Using Robotics

by Adeyinka Adenikinju

Alarge concentration of investment in healthcare would be in technology and digital solutions over the next five years, this is according to the HIMSS Future of Healthcare Report which cited the interests of 80% of healthcare providers (Marr, n.d.). Consequently, we can say this has contributed to the

continuous growth in areas including telemedicine, personalized medicine, genomics, and wearables, with organizers leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, extender reality (XR), and the internet of things (IoT) to develop and deliver new treatments and services (Marr, n.d.).

Now let us talk about robots in healthcare: Since 1980 when the first Robots were used in healthcare, they have continued to transform how surgeries are performed, streamline supply delivery and disinfection, fast-track laboratory results processing, and enhance rehabilitation aided by artificial intelligence they help in the automation of hospital workflows which in summary enables Healthcare practitioners to focus on engaging with and caring for patients (Intel, n.d.).

Most people find themselves on either side of the divide when it comes to Robots being

utilized in workplaces, for staff of a particular organization; it usually comes with the fear of being replaced by these robots while for some its makes work easier with higher probabilities of efficient outputs and costsaving measures.

Say Hello to Pepper, a self-talking Robot receptionist

This assumption can be backed by the trends predicting that startups worldwide will invest hundreds of millions in the development of AI projects, including various kinds of robotic systems, potentially allowing them to cut the cost of hiring qualified hospital staff. The idea is not to replace humans with machines, causing unemployment and

Robot receptionist at hospitals in Belgium (O’Hare, 2016)

a decrease in social standards, but to help medical facilities that already experience an acute deficit in nurses and clinicians due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has put the whole healthcare system under unprecedented pressure.

AI-driven and robotic systems will be used to augment traditional practices rather than replace them, creating a powerful merger of the past and the future. The mix of bold initiatives and their sound regulation is among the top digital health trends in the industry. It will allow clinicians to make the most of innovative

technologies, learn to apply them in rewarding and safe ways, and avoid errors.

Let us focus more on Robotics in Hospital Workflow Healthcare providers keep complaining of increases in workloads; ranging from the back–office tasks to important patient-facing tasks, a number of these can be automated. This challenge gives room for assistance to be rendered, which is where robotics comes into play (RPA in Healthcare | HelpSystems, n.d.).

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a type of automation technology that is transforming the way organizations operate. Another definition for Robotic process automation (RPA) is that it is an automation technology that uses software to mimic back-office tasks performed by human workers, such as data extraction, form filling, file movement, and so on.

It is said to integrate and perform repetitive tasks

between enterprise and productivity applications by combining APIs (Application Programming Interface) (Application Programming Interface) and user interface (UI) interactions. RPA tools complete the autonomous execution of various tasks, activities, and transactions across unrelated software systems by deploying scripts that emulate human processes.

RPA bots can communicate with business systems and

applications, following the same steps in a process that human workers perform, even interfacing with multiple applications in the same workflow.

“Some people believe that RPA is a synonym for AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning), but it is not. In robotics, the robot cannot deviate from the given rules and clearly fulfills them – this is the essence of RPA. The essence of AI and ML

Moxi, a robotic co-worker making nurses life easier

technologies is to train the machine to make decisions autonomously, moving away from the established instructions. However, robotics may include AI and ML elements” (Smyrnova, 2020).

One major advantage of the use of RPA in healthcare facilities is the ever-available presence of the bots which do not need time off and have a very minimal margin for error, so in essence, hospitals always require reliable transmission of sensitive data throughout a wide network of departments and partners. Records must be completely interoperable between providers, labs, pharmacies, and more—and when patients’ lives are on the line, there is no room for error. Complicating matters are the complex IT (Information Technology) environments in healthcare with a barrage of disparate applications, file formats, and systems. All these processes are transformed by Robotic process automation to ensure focus on providing the best care to the patients

The benefits of using Robotic Process automation include; Better Management of patients’ Medical Records

Whether you need to electronically convert medical records or keep existing ones up-to-date, RPA can help extract, move, and synchronize medical data for more accuracy between providers, labs, pharmacies, and more.

There are many highly sensitive interactions with customers in the healthcare industry, but there are also many timeconsuming, repetitive tasks and administrative tasks that do not require specialized knowledge an example of this is the use of Self-talking Robots receptions are being used across the world in hospitals to limit contagion, take patient details, and triage patients according to the hospital policy and processes giving the hospital staff more time to strategically focus attention on impactful processes.

• Reduce healthcare administration costs by automating timeand resource-intensive repetitive manual tasks.

• Increase the speed of processes like triage by automating mundane tasks.

• Reduce human error, ensure task, and output consistency, and enable organizations to successfully implement best practices to improve the accuracy of data, tasks, and reporting in clinical settings and others.

resources to focus on more complex activities.

• Improve the patient experience by providing more consistent care because of better decisions, lower costs, and greater visibility across the entire patient record.

• Increase healthcare staff productivity by automating tasks that do not require human intelligence or thought, freeing up

• Patients are informed of the costs of procedures and treatments in advance, and payment plans, and collections efforts are also automated.

Challenges to using Robotic Process Automation for Hospital workflow

Planning

If not thoughtfully planned before implementation, the use of RPA could limit work outputs, hence it is advised during the planning stage, innovativehealth -tech companies should not forget about the limitations the medical community exerts on AI-driven software, its capabilities, and applications.

Welfare of Healthcare practitioners

There is limitless potential for using robotic helpers and automated systems in modern medicine, but the welfare of medical professionals and the successful treatment of patients remain the utmost priorities of the healthcare system. Concerns around radiation and malfunction come to mind and should be carefully thought out before implementation.

Data breach; a lot of data is being synchronized between patients, healthcare facilities, and government monitoring agencies thanks to interoperability, however, there still is the ever-present threat posed by hackers and this could lead to losses in revenue due to legal cases as well as a breach in patient confidentialities.

Several organizations now major in providing Robotic Process automation for hospitals and healthcare; Indian startup

FeatSystems sends automated

notifications to patients when their appointment is canceled or when doctors are away performing surgery. They also offer services like widget integration and medical database management.

US-based startup

EnterBridge focuses on achieving optimal automation levels for filling insurance data, automating, and speeding up enrolment, and processing claims, thereby optimizing time spent by payers and providers. They ensure that suppliers are offering them fair prices for their capital equipment

purchases.

US-based startup

Element5 offers RPA for home health and senior living agencies. The startup’s platform uses workflow automation to provide automation-as-a service and reduce time spent on complex and repetitive tasks.

British startup

T-impact offers a healthcare RPA solution for assisting doctors during surgeries. It provides key instructions, recommendations, and common warnings to improve surgery outcomes.

US-based startup

CloudMedx applies predictive analytics techniques to medical cases to present the most optimal solutions, warnings, and relevant care alerts. Working on analytical techniques like Natural Language Processing (NLP), big data, evidence-based medicine, and machine learning help medical researchers as well as doctors, who can now pay individual attention to patients (Insights, 2019).

On a final note, with the evergrowing adoption of robotics in the automation of hospital workflows, there is a likelihood of you accessing care aided by RPA and we would thus like to hear about your experience in such healthcare facilities where robotics is being used, we do hope it is for the best.