Research around a robotic simulation platform and its potential to assist people with disabilities shows promise.
There could be another solution to help with the caregiver shortage in the home care space: caregiving robots.
Researchers from Cornell University have developed a simulation platform, RCareWorld, which creates caregiving scenarios around patients who have motor disabilities or need modifications for accessibility in the home setting. Through a combination of avatars and caregiving robots in the simulator, users can work through caregiving scenarios, programming the robots to perform the tasks to care for the avatars with impairments like spinal cord injuries, brainstem stroke, and cerebral palsy. This platform could help stimulate more interest in the robotics field and ultimately help with patient care.
According to a press release, "An estimated 190 million people worldwide have conditions that impair their ability to move and function; assistive robotics has the potential to give these individuals more independence while reducing the burden on caregivers."
The first version of the RCareWorld will be available for use in February.
"There are a lot of barriers to entry to this field," Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Cornell, Tapomayukh Bhattacharjee, said in a statement. Bhattacharjee led the project, noting the lack of research around using robots as caregivers. He cited the team's own challenges of connecting people with limited mobility and clinical stakeholders, the need for an instructional review board to approve studies involving close contact with humans, as well as the cost of the robots.
"You need continuous feedback from the stakeholders—the care-recipients who would potentially use this technology, the caregivers and healthcare professionals—to know whether the technology we're developing is going to translate from the lab to real homes one day."
Bhattacharjee runs the EmPRISE lab in the Cornell University's College of Computing and Information Science. The lab is one of few working to design robots that can assist with physical caregiving, such as being able to feed, bathe, or dress a person. In addition, the researchers are developing solutions for "social caregiving," like reminders for medicine or instructions for exercise.
Jasmyne Ray is the revenue cycle editor at HealthLeaders.