A few days after Megan Brazil Sheehan’s 6-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia, they were walking through the halls of the Umass Memorial Children’s Medical Center when they met Robin, a robot.
“Luka, how are you?” she asked in a high-pitched voice programmed to sound like a seven-year-old girl. “It’s been a while.”
Brazil Sheehan said that after being hospitalized a few days ago, he only met a 4-foot (1.2 meters high) robot on a large screen that displayed cartoon-like features once.
“His face brightens up,” she said of her interaction in Worcester, Massachusetts in June. “It was very special because she remembered him.”
Robin is artificial intelligence – Power therapy robots programmed to act like little girls as they provide emotional support in pediatric units in nursing homes and hospitals, while supporting staffing shortages. Five years after its launch in the US, it has become a familiar face in 30 medical facilities in California, Massachusetts, New York and Indiana.
“Nurses and medical staff are really overworked under a lot of pressure. Unfortunately, many of them have the ability to provide patient engagement and connection,” said Karen Khachikyan, CEO of Expper Technologies, which developed the robot. “Robin helps to ease that part from them.”
As AI became part of everyday life, it found a medical foothold – it provides everything from Take notes during the exam In Electronic nurse. While some are told by the efficiency it brings, others are concerned about the impact on patient care.
Robin is about 30% autonomous, while the team of operators controls the rest remotely with the careful eyes of clinical staff. Khachikyan said that with each interaction, more data can be collected and function independently while adhering to the Portability and Accountability Act of Health Insurance, or HIPAA.
“Imagine pure emotional intelligence like Wall-E. We’re trying to create it,” he said, referring to the 2008 animated film.
I’ll do the round
On a recent Friday, staff at Healthbridge Children’s Hospital in Orange County, California read the list of patients needed to visit, as well as the time spent on each.
The robot with a sophisticated white triangle frame that Khachikyan said is designed to roll into a room with a teenager injured in a car accident and hug him. The robot performed what it described as his favorite song, “No Fear” by Dej Loaf, and he danced together. In the hallway, Robin cracked the young child her mother had held as she wore stupid glasses and a big red nose. In another room, the robot played a simplified version of Tic-Tac-Toe with the patient.
Samantha da Silva, a speech-language pathologist at the hospital, said that when Robin comes to her room, the patients brighten up and remember not only their names but their favorite music.
“She brings joy to everyone,” said Da Silva. “She walks down the hall. Everyone loves to chat with her, hello.”
Robin explained that it reflects the emotions of the person he is talking to, Kachikiyan explained. When the patient is laughing, the robots laugh together, but when they share the difficulties, their faces reflect sadness and empathy.
In the nursing home, Robin plays memory games with people suffering from dementia, performs breathing exercises on difficult days, providing a form of dating that resembles grandparents and grandchildren.
Khachikyan recalled the moment last year when he asked about the robot at a facility in Los Angeles where a woman was suffering from a panic attack. Robin performed songs by his favourite musicians as well as videos of his favourite animal, Elvis Presley and puppies.
However, the American Association of Medical Colleges predicts that the United States will face a shortage of up to 86,000 doctors over the next 11 years, so Kachikian’s vision for Robin goes far beyond this kind of support.
He said he is working to measure the patient’s vitals on the robot, see how they are doing and check that information to send to the medical team. The long-term plan includes the design of Robin to help older patients change clothes and go to the bathroom.
“Our goal is to design the next evolution of Robin. Robin will take on more and more responsibility and become an even more important part of care delivery,” Hachikiyan said.
He made it clear that it was not about replacing healthcare workers, but about filling the gap in the workforce.
At UMass, robots are part of the patient support team. When Luca needed an IV after not getting it for a while, certified child life expert Micaela Cotas came along with the robot to show him IV and what would happen, and Robin played a cartoon with IV in it.
“It helps to show that Robin went through these steps like a peer as well,” Kotas said.
Find that niche
Robin was developed by Hachikian while earning his Ph.D. He said that growing up in a single-parent family in Armenia was lonely and wanted to create a robot that could serve as his friend in a few years.
The developers tested it in a variety of industries before investors suggested that children’s hospitals are the perfect fit for the stress and loneliness that children often feel.
“It was a moment,” he said. “We decided, OK, let’s try it.”
They successfully introduced it at the Children’s Hospital in Armenia and by 2020 they launched a pilot program at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital.
Since Robin was created, its personality and personality have changed significantly based on responses from people who interact with it.
Khachikyan gave an example of Robin’s answer to the question, “What is your favorite animal?” Initially, they tried to make the robot react with the dog. They also tried cats. But when they tried the chicken, the kids cracked. So they stuck to that.
“We created the character of Robin by really bringing the users into the equation,” he said. “That’s why I often say Robin was designed by the user.”
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Associated Press journalist Damian Dovarganes contributed to this report.
