Medical personnel test for corona virus outside an emergency structure

Wars and pandemics, awful as they are, always have spurred innovation, and our world experience with Covid-19 is just another example.  This piece, from an international collaboration, describes how automation, robotics and artificial intelligence can speed up critical research efforts while protecting investigators from deadly pathogens.  For example, “Automated or robot-assisted nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabbing may speed up the [screening] process, reduce the risk of infection, and free up staff for other tasks. Some people do not develop symptoms of the virus or harbor the virus at the moment of testing. In these cases, a blood test to check for antibody appearance could be crucial and used to identify silent infections. Automating the process of drawing blood for laboratory tests could also relieve medical staff from a task with a high risk of exposure. Researchers are studying robotic systems based on ultrasound imaging identification of peripheral forearm veins for automated venipuncture. Automated multiplex real-time assays would allow rapid in vitro qualitative detection and discrimination of pathogens. Autonomous drones or ground vehicles may be used for sample transfer as well as delivery of medicines to infected patients when movement is inadvisable.”  Maybe this should be called “autonomous healthcare.” MORE

Pic in downloads   Image Credit: Claudio Furlan/Lapresse Via Ap