Social Robots in Hospitals: A Systematic Review

Hospital environments are facing new challenges this century. One of the most important is the quality of services to patients. Social robots are gaining prominence due to the advantages they offer; in particular, several of their main uses have proven beneficial during the pandemic. This study aims to shed light on the current status of the design of social robots and their interaction with patients. To this end, a systematic review was conducted using WoS and MEDLINE, and the results were exhaustive analyzed. The authors found that most of the initiatives and projects serve the el- derly and children, and specifically, that they helped these groups fight diseases such as dementia, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cancer, and diabetes

A Brief Wellbeing Training Session Delivered by a Humanoid Social Robot: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Mental health and psychological distress are rising in adults, showing the importance of wellbeing promotion, support, and technique practice that is effective and accessible. Interactive social robots have been tested to deliver health programs but have not been explored to deliver wellbeing technique training in detail. A pilot randomised controlled trial was conducted to explore the feasibility of an autonomous humanoid social robot to deliver a brief mindful breathing technique to promote information around wellbeing. It contained two conditions: brief technique training (Technique) and control designed to represent a simple wait-list activity to represent a relationship-building discussion (Simple Rapport). This trial also explored willingness to discuss health-related topics with a robot. Recruitment uptake rate through convenience sampling was high (53%). A total of 230 participants took part (mean age = 29 years) with 71% being higher education students. There were moderate ratings of technique enjoyment, perceived usefulness, and likelihood to repeat the technique again. Interaction effects were found across measures with scores varying across gender and distress levels. Males with high distress and females with low distress who received the simple rapport activity reported greater comfort to discuss non-health topics than males with low distress and females with high distress. This trial marks a notable step towards the design and deployment of an autonomous wellbeing intervention to investigate the impact of a brief robot-delivered mindfulness training program for a sub-clinical population

Socially assistive robots as mental health interventions for children : a scoping review

Socially Assistive Robots are promising in their potential to promote and support mental health in children. There is a growing number of studies investigating the feasibility and effectiveness of robot interventions in supporting children’s mental wellbeing. Although preliminary evidence suggests that Socially Assistive Robots may have the potential to help address concerns such as stress and anxiety in children, there is a need for a greater focus in examining the impact of robotic interventions in this population. In order to better understand the current state of the evidence in this field and identify critical gaps, we carried out a scoping review of the available literature examining how social robots are investigated as means to support mental health in children. We identified existing types of robot intervention and measures that are being used to investigate specific mental health outcomes. Overall, our findings suggest that robot interventions for children may positively impact mental health outcomes such as relief of distress and increase positive affect. Results also show that the strength of evidence needs to be improved to determine what types of robotic interventions could be most effective and readily implemented in pediatric mental health care. Based on our findings, we propose a set of recommendations to guide further research in this area

Social Robots in Hospitals: A Systematic Review

Hospital environments are facing new challenges this century. One of the most important is the quality of services to patients. Social robots are gaining prominence due to the advantages they offer; in particular, several of their main uses have proven beneficial during the pandemic. This study aims to shed light on the current status of the design of social robots and their interaction with patients. To this end, a systematic review was conducted using WoS and MEDLINE, and the results were exhaustive analyzed. The authors found that most of the initiatives and projects serve the elderly and children, and specifically, that they helped these groups fight diseases such as dementia, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cancer, and diabetes.This work has been supported by the PERGAMEX ACTIVE project, Ref. RTI2018-096986- B-C32, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation

Reducing negative emotions in children using social robots: systematic review

Background: For many children, visiting the hospital can lead to a state of increased anxiety. Social robots are being explored as a possible tool to reduce anxiety and distress in children attending a clinical or hospital environment. Social robots are designed to communicate and interact through movement, music and speech. Objective: This systematic review aims at assessing the current evidence on the types of social robots used and their impact on children’s anxiety or distress levels when visiting the hospital for outpatient appointments or planned admissions. Methods: Databases such as MEDLINE, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, Web of Science, PsychINFO and Google Scholar were queried for papers published between January 2009 and August 2020 reporting the use of social robots interacting with children in hospital or clinical environments. Results: A total of 10 studies were located and included. Across these 10 studies, 7 different types of robots were used. Anxiety and distress were found to be reduced in the children who interacted with a social robot. Conclusions: Overall, the evidence suggests that social robots hold a promising role in reducing levels of anxiety or distress in children visiting the hospital. However, research on social robots is at an early stage and requires further studies to strengthen the evidence base

Using AI-Enhanced Social Robots to Improve Children’s Healthcare Experiences

This paper describes a new research project that aims to develop an autonomous and responsive social robot designed to help children cope with painful procedures in hospital emergency departments. While this is an application domain where psychological interventions have been previously demonstrated to be effective at reducing pain and distress using a variety of devices and techniques, in recent years, social robots have been trialled in this area with promising initial results. However, until now, the social robots that have been tested have generally been teleoperated, which has limited their flexibility and robustness, as well as the potential to offer personalized, adaptive procedural support. Using co-design techniques, this project plans to define and validate the necessary robot behaviour together with participant groups that include children, parents and caregivers, and healthcare professionals. Identified behaviours will be deployed on a robot platform, incorporating AI reasoning techniques that will enable the robot to adapt autonomously to the child’s behaviour. The final robot system will be evaluated through a two-site clinical trial. Throughout the project, we will also monitor and analyse the ethical and social implications of robotics and AI in paediatric healthcare