Joining forces: decision-makers from several sectors are considering the potential of robotics and related technologies
Health Innovation North West Coast is driving an initiative to ensure robotics and related technologies are harnessed to deliver tangible benefits in healthcare.
Plans are in hand to create a network of experts from health and care, industry, academia and local government to support the development, testing and adoption of the latest technologies.
They include autonomous systems, or systems that can take actions and reach decisions without human supervision, as well as robotics and AI.
The initiative will be known as HART – Health and social care with Autonomous systems, Robotics and Technology – and aims to improve patient outcomes, drive efficiencies and develop more sustainable models of care.
It was launched at a meeting at the University of Central Lancashire that brought together representatives from hospital trusts and other NHS organisations, central and local government, universities and the manufacturing research community.
Professor StJohn Crean, Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at the University of Central Lancashire, said: “Health provision has no choice but to embrace the technological future. With that will come cost savings, efficiencies, better value for money and patient safety.
“To enable these technologies to embed themselves in the health arena organisations such as Health Innovation North West Coast are instrumental. It’s only when groups from all the different sectors get together that the rich seam of thought and ideas will emerge.
“Health Innovation North West Coast are essential. Their connections – their black book, if you like – are so wide and influential that they’re the only ones with the 360 degree vision to drive events such as this.”
Prof Melissa Conlon, Commercial Director at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre North West, warned that the UK risked falling behind other nations in adopting robotics, and was the only G7 state outside the top 20 nations ‘league table’ of robotics adoption.
She said: “The gathering today was very important. We’ve brought together people from diverse backgrounds who want to tackle this and they’re able to influence policy and government. There is potential to do something.
“Health Innovation North West Coast is pivotal in this: they had the right people in the room today and it’s about creating a steering body that can do something.
“Wouldn’t it be great to make Lancashire a centre of excellence not just in manufacturing but in healthcare?”
Jenni West, Programme Director for Robotics, Autonomous Systems and Digital at Health Innovation North West Coast, convened the meeting and said: “Robotics and related technologies have enormous potential for improving the way we deliver health services and for improving patient outcomes.
“Lancashire is a centre of advanced manufacturing excellence, and we’re excited about the potential applications for that technology in health and care. The challenge is to harness the skills, expertise and experience in our region to see if we can realise its potential.
“We’re very grateful that so many influential people were willing to join us to explore the options. We don’t want to lose the opportunity.”
Jenni added that the next step is to establish a board that will oversee efforts to consolidate and make best use of resources.
Robotics already has many potential applications in the North West Coast health and care sector. For example:
Royal Liverpool University Hospital is exploring robotic solutions for cleaning large areas of glass and for portering, while at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary a robot cleaner is partly operational. Robots can clean large, open areas much more quickly and evenly than their human counterparts.
At Westmorland General Hospital drones are being considered for roof maintenance and for delivering valuable estates data, while bosses at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre may deploy drones for external cleaning work.
Electromechanical aids such as exoskeletons are used to help stroke patients recover their ability to walk and offer possibilities not available in routine care.
The HART initiative is in part a response to the Government’s ‘three shifts’ in health: from hospital to community, from analogue to digital and from treatment to prevention. It also acknowledges the New Hospital Programme which assumes each average-sized hospital will spend up to £2.5m on robotics in clinical and HR systems and in medicines delivery.
It also aims to ensure the region does not fall behind in the development of robotics and continues to attract specialist companies and investment.
Health Innovation North West Coast’s role will be to convene willing partners in a coalition and promote a ‘living lab’, a collaboration in which stakeholders test and validate various approaches.
Health Innovation North West Coast will also use its expertise to identify funding sources and potential collaborations with industry and overseas partners, and call on the wider resources of the Health Innovation Network.
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