Posts in category: دسته‌بندی نشده

The adoption of robotic technology in healthcare has come a long way in the past decade, evolving from skepticism to widespread acceptance as a means to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve patient care. This transformation is evident at Al Jalila Children’s Specialty Hospital, where advanced robotic technology automates the pharmacy, streamlining medication dispensing based on orders from the Cerner hospital information system.

The integration of robotics and artificial intelligence in healthcare systems holds the potential to contribute significantly to long-term sustainability and profitability. By relieving healthcare professionals of repetitive and monotonous tasks, robots allow for increased precision, reduced workloads, and more time to focus on patient care. This technological shift addresses workforce shortages, cuts costs, and facilitates advanced forms of therapy and rehabilitation.

One of the most notable areas of robotic application is surgery, with the da Vinci Surgical System leading the way. Surgical robots offer greater reach, flexibility, and precision, allowing surgeons to make more accurate incisions and maintain control throughout procedures. However, these robots are designed to complement, not replace, surgeons, enhancing their skills and efficiency.

In pharmacy settings, robots are increasingly popular, especially in outpatient and inpatient pharmacies. They automate tasks such as medication dispensing, labeling, and packaging, ensuring meticulous attention to detail and reducing the risk of errors. Robotic arms play a crucial role in the preparation of intravenous solutions, contributing to a sterile and efficient process.

Rehabilitation medicine has seen the emergence of wearable robotic structures like exoskeletons, aiding patients with a range of motion issues. These devices facilitate rehabilitation therapies, such as gait training for individuals recovering from strokes or spinal cord injuries. Moreover, robotic arms designed for rehabilitation provide a 3-D video gaming experience, tailoring treatments based on individual progress.

Telemedicine benefits from robotic technology, addressing healthcare professional shortages and extending specialized care to remote areas. Human-sized telerobots enable remote patient monitoring, consultations, and communication between healthcare providers and patients. Infection control is another domain where robots, such as the Xenex Robot, excel by employing UV disinfection techniques to reduce hospital-acquired infections effectively.

Mobile logistics robots contribute to streamlining daily hospital operations by autonomously transporting medications, meal orders, and linens. These robots navigate using sensors, reducing wait times and staff workloads. The potential applications of robotics in healthcare extend to phlebotomy, elderly care, dentistry, and even futuristic technologies like nanobots for treating complex diseases.

Despite these advancements, healthcare organizations face challenges in adopting robotic technologies. The initial capital investment required for sophisticated robotic systems, along with concerns about the ability of robots to handle complex and uncertain tasks, may hinder adoption. Some applications may necessitate infrastructure redesign, creating a potential barrier. Additionally, the fear of job displacement remains a concern, although many robotic technologies are designed to complement human skills rather than replace them.

In conclusion, healthcare organizations globally are increasingly embracing robotic technologies across various fields, driven by the potential to enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve patient care. As technology continues to advance and costs decline, the integration of robotics into healthcare operations is poised to become more widespread. Healthcare leaders are urged to recognize the immense potential and long-term benefits of investing in innovative robotic technologies to ensure both operational and innovation excellence.

The rise of artificial intelligence has created growing excitement and much debate about its potential to revolutionize entire industries. At its best, AI could improve medical diagnosis, identify potential national security threats more quickly, and solve crimes. But there are also significant concerns—in areas including education, intellectual property, and privacy.

Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our recent work on how Generative AI systems (for example, ChatGPT and Bard) and other forms of AI have the potential to provide new capabilities but require responsible oversight.

The promise and perils of current AI use

Our recent work has looked at three major areas of AI advancement.

Generative AI systems can create text (apps like ChatGPT and Bard, for example), images, audio, video, and other content when prompted by a user. These growing capabilities could be used in a variety of fields such as education, government, law, and entertainment. As of early 2023, some emerging generative AI systems had reached more than 100 million users. Advanced chatbots, virtual assistants, and language translation tools are examples of generative AI systems in widespread use. As news headlines indicate, this technology continues to gain global attention for its benefits. But there are concerns too, such as how it could be used to replicate work from authors and artists, generate code for more effective cyberattacks, and even help produce new chemical warfare compounds, among other things. Our recent Spotlight on Generative AI takes a deeper look at how this technology works.

Machine learning is a second application of AI growing in use. This technology is being used in fields that require advanced imagery analysis, from medical diagnostics to military intelligence. In a report last year, we looked at how machine learning was used to assist the medical diagnostic process. It can be used to identify hidden or complex patterns in data, detect diseases earlier, and improve treatments. We found that benefits include more consistent analysis of medical data, and increased access to care, particularly for underserved populations.  However, our work looked at limitations and bias in data used to develop AI tools that can reduce their safety and effectiveness and contribute to inequalities for certain patient populations.

Facial recognition is another type of AI technology that has shown both promises and perils in its use. Law enforcement—federal, as well as state and local—have used facial recognition technology to support criminal investigations and video surveillance. It is also used at ports of entry to match travelers to their passports. While this technology can be used to identify potential criminals more quickly, or those who may not have been identified without it, our work has also found some concerns with its use. Despite improvements, inaccuracies and bias in some facial recognition systems could result in more frequent misidentification for certain demographics. There are also concerns about whether the technology violates individuals’ privacy.

Ensuring accountability and mitigating the risks of AI use

As AI use continues its rapid expansion, how can we mitigate the risks and ensure these systems are working appropriately for all?

Appropriate oversight will be critical to ensuring AI technologies remain effective, and keep our data safeguarded. We developed an AI Accountability Framework to help Congress address the complexities, risks, and societal consequences of emerging AI technologies. Our framework lays out key practices to help ensure accountability and responsible AI use by federal agencies and other entities involved in the design, development, deployment, and continuous monitoring of AI systems. It is built around four principles—governance, data, performance, and monitoring—which provide structures and processes to manage, operate, and oversee the implementation of AI systems.

AI technologies have enormous potential for good, but much of their power comes from their ability to outperform human abilities and comprehension. From commercial products to strategic competition among world powers, AI is poised to have a dramatic influence on both daily life and global events. This makes accountability critical to its application, and the framework can be employed to ensure that humans run the system—not the other way around.