First, They Came for the Old and Demented:

Application of Social Robots in Healthcare: Review on Characteristics, Requirements, Technical Solutions

Cyber-physical or virtual systems or devices that are capable of autonomously interacting with human or non-human agents in real environments are referred to as social robots. The primary areas of application for biomedical technology are nursing homes, hospitals, and private homes for the purpose of providing assistance to the elderly, people with disabilities, children, and medical personnel. This review examines the current state-of-the-art of social robots used in healthcare applications, with a particular emphasis on the technical characteristics and requirements of these different types of systems. Humanoids robots, companion robots, and telepresence robots are the three primary categories of devices that are identified and discussed in this article. The research looks at commercial applications, as well as scientific literature (according to the Scopus Elsevier database), patent analysis (using the Espacenet search engine), and more (searched with Google search engine). A variety of devices are enumerated and categorized, and then our discussion and organization of their respective specifications takes place.

Technically sleeping? A clinical single-case study of a commercial sleep robot

The Somnox sleep robot is promoted as sleep enhancing. The current study investigated individual effects, the acceptability and the safety of, and experiences with, a 3-week intervention in adults with insomnia. A repeated ABA single-case design (n = 4) was used to evaluate the effects of the sleep robot compared with baseline, as measured with a sleep diary and actigraphy. Pre-, post-, and 1-month follow-up assessments were conducted, measuring symptoms of insomnia, level of somatic arousal, and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Questions about adherence were included in the sleep diary. Individual interviews were conducted post intervention to explore the participants' experiences with the sleep robot. The sleep diary and actigraphy data showed marginal differences, and if something, often a slight deterioration in the intervention phase. Three participants reported improvements regarding their sleep in the interviews compared with baseline, which mirrored the results on the questionnaires (insomnia and arousal) for two of the participants. The same three participants adhered to the intervention. Stable or improved self-assessed symptoms of depression and anxiety, and information from the individual interviews, suggest that the intervention is safe for adults with insomnia. The results regarding the effects of the sleep robot were mixed, and ought to be scrutinized in larger studies before confident recommendations can be made. However, the study supports the acceptability and safety of the intervention in adults with insomnia.

The effects of a sleep robot intervention on sleep, depression and anxiety in adults with insomnia - Study protocol of a randomized waitlist-controlled trial

Insomnia is a common sleep disorder characterized by difficulties initiating sleep, maintaining sleep and/or early-morning awakenings. Hyperarousal is a common causal and maintaining factor in insomnia models. Different techniques to decrease arousal have shown to be effective. Calm breathing can be one approach to enhance sleep. The Somnox sleep robot looks like a bean-shaped cushion to hug, and it gives physical and auditive guidance to calm down the users' breathing. There is currently no impartial empirical evidence of the sleep robot's effects on insomnia. This study is a randomized waitlist-controlled trial with a recruitment target of a minimum of 44 adults with insomnia and sleep disturbing arousal. Participants will complete pre-, mid- and post-intervention assessments, in addition to a 1-month follow-up. The primary outcome measure is the Insomnia Severity Index. Secondary sleep outcome measures are the Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale, a sleep diary and actigraphy. A secondary comorbid symptoms outcome measure is the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. The main research question is whether treated participants have greater improvements regarding symptoms of insomnia post-intervention, compared with the waitlist control group. The analytic approach will be mixed-effects models. The current study will increase the knowledge on breath guidance as a way to reduce hyperarousal and enhance sleep. The sleep robot is a novel method and a potential treatment option for people with insomnia, when the recommended first-line treatments of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and pharmaceuticals are inaccessible or undesirable. The ethics of healthcare robotics is discussed.

Healthcare Digitalisation and the Changing Nature of Work and Society

Digital technologies have profound effects on all areas of modern life, including the workplace. Certain forms of digitalisation entail simply exchanging digital files for paper, while more complex instances involve machines performing a wide variety of tasks on behalf of humans. While some are wary of the displacement of humans that occurs when, for example, robots perform tasks previously performed by humans, others argue that robots only perform the tasks that robots should have carried out in the very first place and never by humans. Understanding the impacts of digitalisation in the workplace requires an understanding of the effects of digital technology on the tasks we perform, and these effects are often not foreseeable. In this article, the changing nature of work in the health care sector is used as a case to analyse such change and its implications on three levels: the societal (macro), organisational (meso), and individual level (micro). Analysing these transformations by using a layered approach is helpful for understanding the actual magnitude of the changes that are occurring and creates the foundation for an informed regulatory and societal response. We argue that, while artificial intelligence, big data, and robotics are revolutionary technologies, most of the changes we see involve technological substitution and not infrastructural change. Even though this undermines the assumption that these new technologies constitute a fourth industrial revolution, their effects on the micro and meso level still require both political awareness and proportional regulatory responses.

The foundations of a policy for the use of social robots in care

Should we deploy social robots in care settings? This question, asked from a policy standpoint, requires that we understand the potential benefits and downsides of deploying social robots in care situations. Potential benefits could include increased efficiency, increased welfare, physiological and psychological benefits, and experienced satisfaction. There are, however, important objections to the use of social robots in care. These include the possibility that relations with robots can potentially displace human contact, that these relations could be harmful, that robot care is undignified and disrespectful, and that social robots are deceptive. I propose a framework for evaluating all these arguments in terms of three aspects of care: structure, process, and outcome. I then highlight the main ethical considerations that have to be made in order to untangle the web of pros and cons of social robots in care as these pros and cons are related the trade-offs regarding quantity and quality of care, process and outcome, and objective and subjective outcomes.