Key Points
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Health-care robotic companies are thriving on every continent.
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Every sector of the health-care industry is being targeted for robotic support.
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Most of these companies are thriving economically.
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Artificial intelligence is driving the robotic industry to vast new capabilities.
The undeniable presence of robotics in the health field can easily be seen in the emergence of numerous robotic companies that are well funded and often thriving through sales and service to the health sector. Many hospitals now have at least some version of robotic offerings to enhance the health-care environment and improve service to patients. In the following chapter some of the leading robotic companies around the world will be profiled for what they have achieved and for how they plan to improve and expand their robots through research and development. Each of these companies play an international role and seek to change in dramatic and positive ways the nature of health-care delivery.
The number of categories for robotic applications continues to increase. Nearly every facet of medicine has seen some developments from this type of technology. Types of robotic applications include (1) training robots; (2) emotional support robots; (3) rehabilitation robots; (4) surgical robots; (5) rescue robots; (6) robots for pharmaceutical applications; (7) robots for transport within hospitals; (8) nursing robots; (9) avatar robots; (10) robots for blood draws; (11) disinfection robots; (12) robotic process automation; and (13) patient simulation robots. There are even robots that attempt the physician functions of diagnosis and treatment. The fields of artificial intelligence (AI) and the brain-computer interface are closely linked to these fields if not actually integral to them. For each of these areas, there are companies working vigorously to create products that propel the practice of medicine forward. Although some companies strive for robotic and AI products that are specifically geared to certain roles, others offer more generic types of solutions that can be adapted to any given facility’s individual needs.
The drive to integrate robots into our culture and health-care delivery systems thrives in countries throughout the world. Some of the leaders in these efforts include the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, and Germany.
Not all developments come through private industry. Academic centers throughout the world compete to bring forward newer and more spectacular technological achievements. In the United States many colleges and universities and colleges feature departments devoted to this field. Certain universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford are well known for their work in this field. The interchange between academic programs, robotic companies, and governments is often significant.
The third leg of the system for development in the United States involves the Department of Defense, which funds projects among its own ranks, in industry and in academics. Some of those areas relate to the medical management of soldiers on the battlefield. Nevertheless, the Department of Defense plays a role in the activities of industry and academics, a role with substantial importance in terms of funding and influence for future directions. A separate chapter will be devoted to these efforts.
The following is a tour around the world of some companies that are playing crucial roles. There are many more but unfortunately only a sample can be feasibly highlighted.
United States
Diligent Robotics
Diligent Robotics has two cofounders who have created the engaging but equally as useful Moxi, the robot who functions as a frontline aid to health-care workers in a hospital. Andreas Thomaz is chief executive officer and has worked hand in hand with Vivian Chu, the chief technology officer. Dr. Chus’s bio includes an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, where she worked at the GRASP lab in the Haptics Research Group. Her doctorate in robotics came at Georgia Tech. Here she met and received training from Andrea Thomaz, her future partner. In addition to her role as an adjunct professor and senior research scientist in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Thomaz received her bachelor’s of science degree in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and then both her master’s of science and doctor of philosophy degrees from MIT.
Robots can take different tracks in health care, and the Diligent Robotics model includes support of clinical staff through fielding tasks such as the delivery and transport of patient care items that can include medicines and laboratory samples. The service includes automation so that the robot can independently access medical records and receive instructions from an electronic system. After internalizing a map, the robot can navigate throughout the hospital and interface with different wards and clinics. An increase in need in any given area can be addressed.
Moxi has multiple features that provide significant advantages to a hospital system ( Fig. 4.1 ). Its robotic arm can manipulate items in the environment and can be used to access elevators and open doors. The high-speed Wi-Fi can integrate with the one working within a given hospital. It has a relatively roomy, secure compartment for the transport of hospital items from one location to another. It has embedded computing and cloud-based software. Sensors allow the robot to move throughout the hospital without posing any sort of safety hazard to staff, patients, or hospital infrastructure.
The face of the robot has LED lights that can configure friendly, warm, and endearing expressions that help staff and patient moral. Finally, AI within the robot systems help Moxi learn from experience. It can then utilize this information and learning to increase its effectiveness. The types of deliveries Moxi can make are quite varied. Lightweight equipment, laboratory samples, pharmacy deliveries, discharge medications, COVID-19 tests and kits, personal protective equipment (PPE), nutrition, hospitality items, bone, tissue, and blood bank supplies comprise many of its capacities. The company estimates the robot is equivalent to 2.75 full-time equivalents or up to 22 hours of work a day while the rest of the time is spent recharging. Its activities can be monitored remotely, and there is a common ledger of work actions that can be added to or subtracted from at nursing stations or other locations.
Olive
Olive is a relatively new company that has introduced a cloud-based AI system to facilitate the interactions between providers and payors for automation that is faster, less cumbersome, and more efficient. The cloud-based system coordinates the activities of payors and providers through an AI interface that makes transactions swift and efficient. Areas addressed include reimbursement management, patient access, clearinghouse actions, payments, and population health. The vision for this company came from Sean Lane, a software engineer who worked in military intelligence and the National Security Agency as a software engineer. The company promises streamlined, faster, more efficient, and less expensive processes.
Gaumard Scientific
Based in Miami, Florida, Gaumard Scientific specializes in simulators and health-care provider training systems. HAL is a pediatric robotic training simulator that convincingly looks like a small boy and that can communicate feelings and responses to situations that would stress a living child ( Fig. 4.2 ). Health-care providers can practice procedures and learn to cope with the protests and discomfort a real child would provide. Per the company’s website, the wireless and tether-less simulator has the following capabilities:
Interactive eyes and active facial expressions
Dynamic lung compliance with true ventilator support
Real patient monitoring support: Sp o 2 , electrocardiograph, capnography, non-invasive blood pressure (NIBP), live pacing, and defibrillation
Emergency intervention: surgical airway, needle decompression, chest tube insertion
Robotic Surgical Simulator
The Da Vinci Robotic Surgery system, or RoSS, is one of the most widely used for robot-guided and robot-assisted surgeries. However, to use it successfully, of course, requires training. The RoSS ( Fig. 4.3 ) was developed through a collaboration between the Center for Robotic Surgery at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Buffalo (UB) School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Xenex
Xenex, a Houston-based company, has a produced a robot that employs ultraviolet light to kill microorganisms in hospitals and thus reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired infections such a Clostridium difficile colitis. Two epidemiologists started the company in 2008, and there has been substantial growth in their operations since then. The robot can negotiate any hospital space for disinfection and thus is highly effective in reducing toxic microorganism loads in the hospital environment.
Vasculogic LLC
VascuLogic LLC offers the product VenousPro ( Fig. 4.4 ). This system allows the user to operate it through a touchless screen. The patient places his or her arm into the machine, which can then identify a suitable vein for a blood draw. The system uses ultrasound to locate and assess a vein for venipuncture and once this is done the needle is placed into the vein for an accurate, one-time blood draw. The system thus promotes accuracy and comfort and avoids repeated draws due to unsuccessful attempts.
Asensus Surgical
Formerly called Transenterix, this company advertises “performance-guided surgery.” The Senhance minimally invasive laparoscopic surgical system boasts an eye-tracking camera, a digital interface with the patient, haptic sensing, and many other fascinating new features.
Medrobotics Corporation
This company was founded in 2005 and is based in Massachusetts. Its main product is the Flex Robotic System, which has been Food and Drug Administration approved since 2015. The Flex Robotic System is designed to navigate with a flexible probe to tissues that do not have a linear access path such as oral access locations. There is an inner system contained within an outer one that is steered through a joystick. Rigid and flexible technologies are combined. Medrobotix obtained the worldwide licenses for technologies developed at the Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburg. The Flex Robotic System provides a high density (HD) image of anatomical structures. The company was recently acquired by the University of Kentucky.
Burt Therapy
This company came as an offshoot of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1990. It developed the WAM arm, which is the first haptic robotic arm. At its inception it was considered the most advanced robotic arm. Burt Therapy is also branching into stroke rehabilitation.
Luvozo PBC
Luvozo PBC is a start-up located at the University of Maryland with a robot named Sam to help the elderly. This robot can provide frequent check-ins and nonmedical care. It is described as a robotic concierge, and aside from remote check-ins, it can provide telehealth services and delivery of items. Luvozo also has a disinfecting robot.
Canada
Each country has its own unique needs, and in Canada delivering health care and in particular emergency care to remote towns in isolated, rural areas during warm but also more importantly extremely cold weather represents a Canadian concern. In Saskatchewan the use of such technology is already a reality. If a sick individual shows up in a clinic with a serious condition in a remote northern town, a doctor can navigate a robot to that individual and perform an assessment. The robot provides multiple opportunities for the physician who could be hundreds of miles away. Through the robot he can see the patient. He can assess breath sounds with the robot stethoscope, measure the oxygen levels through pulse oximetry, talk to the nurse, take an electrocardiograph. The telestrator allows the doctor to draw helpful pictures on a screen on the robot to get certain types of information across to the nurse or patient. Thus, skilled and expert assessment and treatment are delivered effectively across miles of distance through a robotic avatar.
The push for the development of this technology in this country is quite strong. The Canadian government has applied millions of dollars to make sure academic centers keep up with the race for sophisticated and useful AI. For example, in the 2021 budget the government promises Canadian (CAD) $443.8 million over 10 years for AI development. The 2021 budget will distribute monetary support in a way that the following examples illustrate: (1) CAD $185 million for the commercialization of AI; (2) CAD $162.2 million for recruiting top talent in this area; (3) CAD $48 million for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research; (4) CAD $40 million to increase computing capacity at AI institutes in Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto. There are other distributions as well.
Emtech, Inc
Combining robotic and AI technology Emtech in Ottawa, Canada, provides consultancy solutions for multiple industries including health care. Their services cross the full network of players in Canada and include payers, providers, and business performance management. For these departments, the benefits of these systems include automation of tedious tasks, more efficiency through streamlining, coordination across platforms, predictive modeling, enhancing self-service for patients, and so forth. These sorts of innovation work toward improving practice finances, supply chains, customer satisfaction, human resource operations, medical records, cyber security, and data analytics for practice improvement, among other areas.
Holo Robots
Holo Robots is a Canadian company that specializes in telepresence robots with applications across all fields including health care. Its robots boast cameras, sensors (stereo vision, ultrasound, wheel encoders, inertial measurement), microphones, a speaker, a 9.7-inch display, a battery with 4 hours of run time and 2 hours of charge time, and wireless connectivity, among other features. Multiple robots can be managed through a central portal. Surgeons have used the robot for rounding on patients when at a conference or other remote location and can manipulate the robot from virtually any platform such as a laptop or a smartphone. With the worldwide shortage of doctors and nurses, telepresence robots offer a solution that allows doctors and nurses to have a remote presence, and thus the robots serve as extenders for healthcare professionals.
Europe
Assistive robots in Europe are providing a strong and growing presence there, although companies from other regions of the world such as the United States and Japan are providing robots that are also used in the European health system. Manus made an early debut, and now another robot mounted manipulator, iArm, is offering a sophisticated robot arm that is produced through Exact Dynamics. The iArm can lift up to 1.5 kg with 6 degrees of freedom and has a reach of nearly a meter. The arm offers high dexterity and functionality. Individuals with motor challenges can operate the device through a 250-kbit Controller Area Network (CAN) interface that uses both a Cartesian system of control and a velocity control.
Bestic
An example of a more specialized robotic arm for individuals with motor challenges comes from a Swedish company and is called Bestic ( Fig. 4.5 ). Motor challenges can vary from weakness to spastic or ataxic movements that make self-feeding difficult or impossible.
The following companies represent an array of European companies that offer some interesting and cutting-edge technologies for interventional medicine. These are grouped according to the country of their home base.
Austria
Tyromotion
Tyromotion specializes in robot-assisted gait rehabilitation. It offers an array of products for both the upper extremities and lower extremities.
France
Founded in 2009 by Phillipe Bencteux and Bruno Fournier and with a valuation of several million euros, Robocath takes a lead in robotic treatments and intervention for cardiovascular conditions. R-One has received the CE mark, and it is a robotic device that has great precision and specificity and is compatible with technology already in catheterization laboratories. The operator sits at the control behind a shield and operates the robotic arm to insert cardiac stents, for example. The company is targeting remote interventions for cardiovascular emergent conditions and has the potential to become a world leader in this direction.
Germany
In 2014 Stephan Nowatschin and Maximilian Krinninger founded Medineering Surgical Robotics, now a part of Brainlab Robotics, which advertises robotic surgical solutions for every subspecialty of surgery. Medineering originally targeted robotic interventions for the complex anatomy involved in ear, nose, and throat surgery. However, Medineering has partnered with Brainlab to provide applications for neurosurgery. The Medineering device is modular and operates from a scalable platform. In addition to its surgical alternatives, Brainlab also has applications for radiotherapy, medical image sharing, and the digitalization of operating rooms.
Kuka Robotics
This company is headquartered in Augsburg, Germany, but has branches throughout the world such as in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, the United States, Canada, Singapore, China, South Africa, and many other locations. With sales of around €2.6 billion and about 14,000 employees, KUKA provides strong leadership in automation and robotics. It has a division devoted to robotics in health care. One of its first robotic systems in medicine was the surgical-radiation CyberKnife used for inoperable tumors in 2001.
Some of their high payload systems allow for the precise positioning of patients in coordination with other medical devices such as computed tomography scanners and the delivery of radiation treatments to precise locations for the ablation of tumors.
Kuka has now become part of Midea, a Chinese company and one of the largest in the world that has assets of around $40 billion.
Netherlands
Shiqian Wang founded Reboocon Bionics in 2016 to provide service robotic solutions for those individuals with disabilities. This type of intervention comes through lightweight, intelligent robots and ones that assist the mobility impaired in getting up and walking.
Spain
Gogoa
Founded in 2015 by Carlos F. Isoird, GOGOA Mobility Robotics provides wearable robotic technology to facilitate ambulation and other mobility needs for individuals with impairments. Its products include Hank, the lower-extremity exoskeleton; Belk, the knee exoskeleton; and the Hand of Hope, which is a hand exoskeleton, as well as exoskeletons for industry. The exoskeleton Hank has a CE mark.
Able Human Motion
Another company providing exoskeletons such as for spinal cord injury is ABLE Human Motion. Alex Garcia, Alfons Carnicero, and Josep Font founded the company in 2018. The exoskeleton allows the user with lower-limb paralysis to stand from a wheelchair and walk with the device that is relatively lightweight given that it is powered. An assistive device may be necessary but nevertheless the energy required is less than with passive knee ankle foot orthoses. The company is based in Barcelona and is dedicated to improving the life of individuals with disabilities.
Sweden
Acousort
Torsten Freltoft founded AcouSort in 2010. The company provides technology involved in cell separation, enrichment, and handling through acoustophoresis. Cells can be moved through acoustic vibrations (ultrasound) in a fashion that does not destroy them. Through use of ultrasound and the adjustment of various parameters, blood components can be moved through different channels and thus different blood products can be separated from the whole blood sample. Particle size, density, compressibility as well as the characteristics of the surrounding medium can be utilized to make the process accurate.
Switzerland
AOT Swiss
Founders Alfedo Bruno, Hans Florian Zeilhofer, Jurgens Philipp, and Philippe Catting created AOT Swiss in 2010 based on technology that can perform bone surgeries with extraordinary precision using a robotic arm with navigation and control software that produces a laser that at the incision site and leaves bone tissue intact. The machine is called CARLO or Cold Ablation Robot-Guided Laser Osteotome. The nature of the incision allows bone to regenerate more easily at the incision site. Any desired geometric pattern can be created.
Hocoma
Hocoma is a Swiss company started in 1996. Hocoma has a host of robotic therapies for neurologic conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injuries, multiple sclerosis, and so on as well as low back pain. It has branches in the United States, Singapore, Slovenia, and Chile. One of its robotic gait training systems is the Andago that combines support and safety but also guidance toward improved gait for patients who have suffered gait impairing neurologic disorders. Other devices include robotic treadmill training and exoskeletons for upper-extremity retraining.
Reha Technology
This Swiss company also makes a robotic gait training device called the G-EO System Evolution, which has found a place in hospitals in Germany, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. This device has applications to a pediatric population. The device employs repetition of normalized gait patterns applied to a patient’s lower extremities to entrain and retrain nerve cells to gradually model normal gait through the benefits of repetition and sensory feedback on neural plasticity.
Russia
Russia also has companies to compete in the global robotics market. There are five current trends in the Russian robotic market and certainly the robotic health-care market partakes of these trends. These trends concern the government support and promotion of robotics, the need and use of educational robots, the market for service sector robotics and industrial robotics, and finally robots developed for use in small and medium-sized businesses. In 2017 the Digital Economy of the Russian Federation received its launch. The Russian Association of Robotics is working in conjunction with the Ministry of Trade and Industry to strategize and promote this area. Included in these efforts is an effort on the part of the government to accelerate and extend the development of advanced robotics and AI technologies. The educational robots have taken an important role both for the economy of this sector and for its development. Thirty-one percent of all service robots in 2017 from the 10 leading companies were sold for educational purposes. Educational robots take on many different types of interfaces and programs such as drones for pilots and those with neurologic interfaces. The country provides instructional courses for robots to children and to teachers to foster the growth of this area and to fill anticipated future workforce needs. The country also has instituted compulsory computer science training since 1985, and this training has resulted in a well-trained talent bank of programmers. Another strong component in the Russian robotic sector is the one for service robots, and there are at least 100 service robot companies providing products over a wide gamut. The top 10 companies are seeing an annual doubling of revenue and are rapidly increasing their staff to fit their needs. The companies have managed sales and profits both domestically and in a plethora of foreign countries. For example, Promobot (see later) receives sales revenue from around 33 countries that comprise 61% of its bottom line. Exports to 10 countries comprise 30% of revenues for Alpha Robotics. Similarly ROBBO, a manufacturer of educational robots, has markets in at least 12 countries.
Exoatlet
Creating exoskeletons for rehabilitation ExoAtlet has cultivated the Asian market for its product. The company markets ExoAtlet for a wide range of neurologic disorders such as spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and postsurgical arthroplasty. Research collaborations are encouraged. It has the CE mark and is ISO13485 certified with certifications and acceptance in India, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Russian, and Vietnam. Dr. Miguel Pais-Vieira, a professor at Catolica University in Portugal, has used the device in brain-computer interface trials. The device can allow users to go up and down stairs and over uneven terrain. Data can be uploaded for storage in a cloud service. The company has organized an annual symposium on exo-rehabilitation to exchange clinical and research experiences using such devices to rehabilitate people with these neurologic disorders.
Promobot
Hadassah Medical, an Israeli hospital chain that has a clinic at Skolkovo Innovation Center, currently employs robotics from Promobot. These robots have AI systems and can measure a patient’s blood oxygen levels, temperature, blood glucose levels, and lung volumes. Information is processed through the AI systems, which then makes recommendations. Through such performance the robot can shoulder some of the doctor’s duties and thus free up time for other tasks. These types of robots can to some extent alleviate the shortage of doctors and nurses in Russia and other countries such as the United Kingdom. The Ministry of Health in Russia suggests a shortfall of roughly 148,000 doctors and 800,000 nurses, and thus measures to counteract this issue take on greater significance. Promobot collaborates with clinics throughout the world and attempts to raise the level of care through its technologies and has adapted these technologies to meet the demands of the COVID-19 crisis. In addition to robots with the functions mentioned previously, Promobot offers Robo-C, a companion robot that has the capacity to mimic human emotion. It can carry on conversations, remember faces, scan and fill documents, manage a smart home, and connect with third-party applications.
India
In India as in many other countries around the world, a shortage of doctors exists such that for every 1445 Indians, there is a single doctor. The World Health Organization recommends a ratio of 1 doctor per 1000 people. Hospital beds are also lacking, and the country’s ratio of 0.7 beds per 1000 people falls short of the global average of 3.4. Here are some of the robotic and AI companies that currently are among those attempting to remediate this situation.
Asimov (Advanced Systems with Intelligence Mobility and Vision) Robotics
ASIMOV (Advanced Systems with Intelligence Mobility and Vision) Robotics has multiple offerings that have impacted both the medical and defense sectors. Its technologies address robotic simulation and control, machine vision, virtual reality, and navigation. The company has developed KARMI-Bot to assist in the care of patients in isolation units through multiple functions. These functions would include independent navigation, delivery of food and medical supplies, video conferencing, engaging patients, and disinfection. The SEVABOT provides services such as transport of blood and ampoules to the surgical suites, intensive care unit, and pharmacy. CHHAYA provides customer assistance and information and has the capabilities through AI of showing emotion and providing gestures through prosthetics. The platform is a nonmobile torso and human appearing face. SAYABOT is another humanoid, AI-driven robot with a wide range of capabilities that include uses in health care. In addition to health care some of its functions include security, banking, hospitality, and education.
Invento
Invento Robotics has created Mitra, a robot with numerous capabilities. The companies advertise functions such as face recognition, autonomous navigation, AI, and fleet management where a remote human operator can manipulate the robot(s). Ralaji Viswanathan founded the company in 2016. The robots are companion robots and work as medical assistants. The robots can converse with patients and have wide ranging conversational skills. The robot can act as a remote avatar and can utilize traditional examination tools such as the stethoscope. Mitra can do the initial interview with the patient and after permission take the patient’s photo. It can then collect some historical information and vital signs, after which it can connect the patient to the physician who can remotely communicate and either write a prescription at that point or direct the patient to further assessment and treatment. Mitra can roam the hospital and recognize hospital personnel and patients through its facial recognition systems. Patient data are carefully protected and encrypted to meet government standards of patient privacy. The company is selling the robots in at least five countries.
Sastra
With headquarters in Cochin, India, Sastra Robotics has built up a reputation in some assessments as one of the top 50 robotic startups in the world. Its robots have a facility in mimicking human actions. The company advertises smart surgical and medical diagnostic devices for the medical field but has applications to many other fields as well. For its medical diagnostic equipment, the company has created a product with an advanced human machine interface that consists of both touch screen capabilities as well as voice commands.
India has a burgeoning sector of AI companies that have entered the health-care marketplace and that are attempting to revolutionize the ways in which health care is provided. Many of these companies cover areas similar to those mentioned for other countries such as image analysis, breast cancer screening and early detection, online doctor consultation tools such as for one’s smartphone, as well as health guidance systems on things like diet and exercise. Let us explore a few of these interesting startups.
Lybrate
Lybrate joins the ranks of online doctor consultation systems and has been in operation since 2014. Its platform will link the user to an appropriate physician for assessment and advice while on the go without the limitations of having to physically go to a doctor’s office. The platform provides physician services from a wide variety of specialties and allows the user to also arrange laboratory tests and receive input on weight, diet, fitness, hair, and skin issues. There is also a bot on Facebook Messenger for health consultations as well.
Wysa
Wysa is an online AI conversational bot that is aimed at improving the user’s mental health. The AI conversationalist aims to help an individual with issues such as depression. Other applications include guidance for relationships, trauma, sleep, anxiety, negative moods, energy, and loneliness. The bot uses such techniques as cognitive-based therapy, motivational interviewing, and microactions to help generate more positive outlooks and feelings in users. The bot is for promotion of emotional well-being but not for diagnosis, treatment, or cure of disorders or diseases. The company advertises that people from at least 30 countries worldwide currently are using their system.
Meda Biotech
Meda Biotech focuses on nanobioengineering primarily to treat cancer. The company’s specific area of innovation is hybrid nanotechnology. Nanotechnology in general can facilitate the solubility and bioavailability of medications. The traditional components used in such formulations include such chemicals as surfactants, detergents, phospholipids, pegylation, and so on. Through its new technology the company improves the actions of medications that already exist primarily through increasing solubility. One of the examples provided is Nanovil versus ibuprofen, in which the solubility, efficacy, safety, and time to onset of action have been significantly improved over traditional formulations.
Next Big Innovation Labs
Certainly, 3D printing has made and continues to make many inroads into the practice of medicine and into rehabilitation medicine. Orthotic devices, prosthetic components, assistive devices, and so on have all benefited from advances in 3D printing. However, Next Big Innovation Labs is in pursuit of even more lofty goals in the way of 3D printing biological tissues and organs. The company was founded in 2016 to push the limits of 3D bioprinting and is based in Bangalore, India. The company received a patent for precision bioprinting tissues in 2019. Its bioprinter Trivima can bioprint human skin or Innoskin. The ultimate goal is to help manage the ever-growing demand for transplantable organs. In addition to the creation of tissues, bioprinting can play a role in regenerative medicine as well.
Grainpad
GrainPad proposes to support and pursue the development of a wide spectrum of fields through services such as data analytics, AI-driven roots with machine learning capabilities, automation, the creation of custom chatboxes, and drone systems. The company wants to foster research in areas such as physics, astronomy, 3D bioprinting, nanotechnology, robotics, AI, and genomics, particularly with respect to accelerating technological growth in medicine.
Wellowise
WellOwise promotes physical soundness through health coaching in a system that is AI based and that achieves its end through thorough data collection on an individual. Thus, recommendations are tailored to the individual and take into account genomics as well as other factors. In addition to genetics and lifestyle characteristics, the programs consider several metabolic markers as well.
Reliva Physiotherapy & Rehab
Not all robotic/AI systems are oriented to nursing and doctor roles. ReLiva Physiotherapy & Rehab has created a system with such technology to provide expert physical therapy services through an app on one’s smartphone. The company covers the full gamut of traditional conditions that can benefit from rehabilitation such as low back pain, joint replacements, fractures, neurologic and cardiac conditions, shoulder conditions, and all other conditions that a physiotherapist can design a program for and treat. The system takes a patient through an initial assessment and establishment of goals, to the treatment program, to a maintenance program, and then finally to one of prevention and maintenance of lifestyle. To accommodate the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, the company offers an online service that allows one to access a physiotherapist from the phone or other device.
Sigtuple
SigTuple is a company in India that combines the elements of AI, robotics, and data analytics to improve the speed and accuracy of health care to individuals living in areas remote from higher levels of medical care. The entire assessment of an individual can take minutes as opposed to hours and speed up the time to appropriate treatment. The company has multiple products based around advanced digital technologies. These would include Shonit, in which blood smear images are digitized and analyzed for assessments similar to what a pathologist would provide. Shrava performs the same sort of service for a urine sample. Aadi is an automated, digitized system for semen analysis. Digitizer provides more broad-based scanning of slides and digitization of images with storage on a cloud system for review by a pathologist. For diabetic retinopathy, Drishti is coupled with a fundus camera and the image is then digitized and analyzed through a cloud-based AI system that can then provide a diagnosis and flag issues such as glaucoma and macular degeneration. The company defines its journey as starting in 2015 with the digital analysis of a peripheral blood smear. Shortly after that the company obtained $740,000 in investment money for further development.
Advancells
Advancells has centered itself around stem cell therapy or regenerative medicine and directs its therapeutics to a host of disorders such as spinal cord injury, orthopedic conditions, eye conditions, skin conditions, aging, and infertility.
China
China has seen a phenomenal, recent growth in its robotics and AI sectors. Health-care robotics has participated in such growth such as in the areas of rehabilitation, drug delivery, and robotic surgery. Part of the impetus for this growth in robotics, particularly for rehabilitation and home care, comes from a growing elderly population that will put great demands on the health-care workforce. Projections estimate the population over 60 in 2050 to be around 30% compared with 12% of the population in more recent times.
Surgical robotics faces more obstacles to growth as available surgical robots such as the Da Vinci Surgical System are accessible only to the wealthier hospitals and patients. Advantages such as smaller incisions, better recovery times, remote capabilities, and more precise procedures are providing the impetus for the creation and development of more local manufacturers with cheaper alternatives.
Rehabilitation robots provide a method of precisely measuring a patient’s progress through sensors while also extending the therapeutic range of therapists. The market for rehabilitation robots in China has grown considerably.
Robots can also provide assistance and safety for pharmacists and pharmacy aids in the preparation of intravenous medications, particularly those with associated toxicities such as chemotherapeutic agents. The following are a few companies to illustrate these trends.
Chongqing Jinshan Science & Technology
This company was founded in 1998 and has manufactured capsule endoscopes for the assessment of the gastrointestinal tract. The company has expanded the abilities of its device by adding the capabilities for independent movement that can be controlled remotely by a physician, who can then steer the device to areas of interest for further examination, for drug delivery through silicon micro pumps, or for biopsy. In addition to the OMOM capsule robot, the company is creating the OMOM minimally invasive surgical robot.
Robotic Surgical Companies
Two companies that are aggressively pursuing the robotic surgical market include Beijing Tinavi for orthopedic systems and Beijing Bohuiweikang Technology for neurosurgery. From 2010 to around 2016, more than 2000 surgeries have been performed with the orthopedic robot. Professor Liu Da founded Beijing Bohuiweikang Technology for commercialization of the Remebot system for stereotactic neurosurgery with six axes of freedom.
Midea-Yaskawa
A leading Chinese appliance company, Midea, and a Japanese industrial robot company, Yaskawa, formed a joint venture, Midea-Yaskawa, in 2015 to produce rehabilitation and nursing care robots. Products include the LR2-Leg Rehabilitation Robot.
Japan
Japan represents one of the world’s leaders in the development of robotics, machine learning, AI, and machine vision. In 2017 it produced 50% of the world’s industrial robots and provided 297,200 robot installations in the same year. It also has a very aggressive stance in promoting startups in these areas and promoting the development of unicorns.
Telexistence
There are many interesting robotic companies in Japan, many of which have been discussed in other chapters. Telexistence or TX Inc. is a Japanese company that offers a telepresence robot with more advanced avatar abilities ( Fig. 4.6 ). The robot provides sensory feedback to the controller who also has his movements transmitted to the robot for communication purposes and completion of physical tasks. Grasping and reaching are facilitated with AI, and the operator manipulates the robot through a VR platform.
Related posts:
Introduction—The Growing Role of Robotics in Health Care
Neuroprosthesis Applications of Robotic Exoskeletons
Medical Robotics in Acute Care Medicine (Urgent Care, Pain Management, and Robot-Assisted Surgery)
Robots on the Battlefield and for Space Travel
Brain-Controlled Assistive Robotics and Prosthetics
The Future of Robots in Medicine
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