A team of engineers and scientists at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Faculty of Engineering at University of Ruhuna has developed a medical robot which will allow doctors to remotely diagnose patients.
During a pandemic such as COVID-19, it is important to think of the protection of healthcare personnel. Through this medical robot, they will be able to communicate with the patients without physically being in the same room. The uniqueness of this system is the two way audio and video communication which runs on an internal server which can be operated over any Wi-Fi network without the use of the internet. Further, doctors can access this device over the internet from home to view diagnosis data and also to communicate with the patient.
In addition, this medical robot stands out from the rest with its capability to take vital measurements such as body temperature, ECG, heart rate and blood oxygen levels in order for doctors to diagnose patients. The medical sector in Sri Lanka will have unanticipated challenges beyond the current requirements if COVID-19 is spread. As such the inventors are persistent about making a robot that can be easily upgraded to future needs rather than unveiling the device in a hurry. The possibilities of a medical robot to the healthcare sector are limitless.
Project is led by Dr. (Eng.) Subodha Gunawardena, Eng. Chatum Sankalpa and Dr. (Eng.) Noeline Prins with the assistance of several faculty, graduates and students working in person and from home. They are developing this with the feedback from doctors at the Faculty of Medicine and Teaching Hospital Karapitiya as well as biomedical engineers. The prototype is expected to be done this week and a test run at the hospital is scheduled for the end of this month.
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